Claws and Fangs
by Shadow Master
Summary: BtVS/InuYasha/Marvel  Xander manages to get a little further than Oxnard but will soon wish he'd stayed on the Hellmouth where it's safe. The past influences the present and the present shapes the future.
1. Chapter 1

"Claws and Fangs" by Shadow Master aka Ryley Breen

email: ryley[underscore]breen[at]hotmail[dot]com

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material shown herein. They belong to their original creators and associated companies. I am making no money off of this at all. I write for my own enjoyment as well as the enjoyment of those who choose to read my works. So therefore not only would a lawsuit be unnecessary but if one was thrown at me the cost of the trial would vastly outweigh any potential gain.

Note: While I will do my best to keep things as close to canon as possible I will be making some changes. Therefore if any of you who read this are vastly opposed to any deviation from canon I would recommend you stop right here. In terms of timeline this would happen about a month after Xander leaves on his cross country road trip and unlike in canon he actually gets past Oxnard. In the Marvel Universe this would happen about a month before M-Day and go from there. For the purposes of the fanfic though instead of being in San Francisco when M-Day occurs she'll be in NYC. I do this because I don't want to be caught writing up filler to make up for the space of time between the start of this fanfic and the events depicted in the New X-Men comics. As for the rest…well let's just say that I think it's a good idea and I've decided to go with it.

_Claws and Fangs_

_**Downtown, New York City, A Month and a Half After Graduation, Afternoon**_

_**Xander's P.O.V**_

_Well I'm halfway through my roadtrip. _Xander thought as he took in the busy city street and sidewalks all around him, _I think I'll stay here awhile and take in the sights before heading back to California._

It had been a helluva trip so far, bits of normalness mixed with the odd bit of demon slaying, and it was only half over. Still, he'd picked a decent place to stop for a short time, given that NYC was pretty much the superhero capital of America. You pretty much couldn't go a week without seeing a superhero doing something, be it simply patrolling or throwing down with the super-villain of the week. He'd already spotted Spider-Man web-swinging around town and knew that that wouldn't be the end of it by far. He'd already checked into a decent hotel and now was just strolling about the city taking in the sights and doing whatever caught his interest. That didn't mean though that he was completely oblivious to the dangers of this city like the muggers and criminal elements that loved to target oblivious tourists. He had two daggers on spring-loaded mechanisms strapped to his forearms and both would pop into his hands in the blink of an eye. Then there was his Rambo knife tucked beneath his belt against his back concealed beneath both his shirt and his coat so that a local cop wouldn't spot it. While he knew that against a gun blades wouldn't be much of a threat, he knew the memories he'd inherited from Soldier Boy would make up for any disadvantage he might be at. Unlike what he'd claimed when he'd shown up at the Summers home, the fatigues he had worn hadn't been of a private but rather a Green Beret. He'd had the beret itself tucked into the back of his pants because he'd been worried about how Larry would react if he walked into the school wearing it. Sure, Green Beret's were considered to be damn good but the beret was not exactly manly on its own, thus held the potential of being bullying material. Thanks to him keeping it on him rather that tossing it he now had a wealth of military knowledge inside his head and half the moves of a Green Beret in his head. As for the other half, he occasionally had flashes of it inside his head but, for the most part, the remainder of the training had been reduced to muscle memory. In certain situations his body would move of its own volition and it usually took him five to ten seconds before he realized that his arms or his legs were doing something that his brain hadn't commanded them to do. Sometimes it was useful in that it allowed him to dodge or strike a hair faster than conscious thought would allow but other times it left him in awkward spots with the gang. Fortunately he managed to weasel his way out of those spots with a goofy excuse and a joke but, after one close call, he made an effort to exert more control over himself.

Still, it'd give him an edge over the punks and low lives of this city.

He was just walking across a crosswalk when another supernatural inheritance made itself known, although this one was decidedly unwelcome for the most part. As he passed the halfway mark the remnants of the hyena started laughing in his head, but this was not the laugh of a predator who'd spotted its prey. It was the laugh of an animal in the presence of a more deadly predator that need only look in the Hyena's direction to make it shit itself. It had him freeze on the spot and immediately look for what was causing his inner annoyance to raise such a commotion inside his head. Looking about, he could see no one other than the usual flow of people but he knew better than to take things at face value, so he looked for the slightest thing that stood out. Sadly he had only a few seconds before the 'you can walk now' lights on the metal post changed to 'do not walk unless you want to get run over' and he had to get off the road. In those seconds he had he let his eyes and his other senses sweep over the people before dumping the information into his custom-made Sunnydale processor. Nada. Whatever his inner hyena had sensed was so well hidden that it could only be detected on a primal level like a scent on the wind or a sixth sense feeling that lets you know you're being watched without giving away the location of the watcher. It was impossible to pin down to precise point or person making identifying the source of the remnants' fear impossible for him to do in so short a time. So he put the entire incident out of his mind and resumed taking in the Big Apple and all it had to offer him.

At least he tried to do that.

Every single time he saw a crowd of people crossing the street, he recalled what his other had sensed and it made him wonder. It made him wonder what was such a dangerous being doing in this city and whether he should be doing something about it. To cause another predator to feel fear it had to be pretty nasty indeed even if hyenas weren't exactly the fiercest predator out there. It wasn't a conventional predator either to blend in so well with the sheep walking down the street that no one noticed what he/she/it really was inside. Was it/she/he just passing through or up to no good? Probably. Hopefully. Otherwise his inner white knight was going to start acting up. After all, while no one was in any immediate or visible danger there was no guarantee it'd stay that way and, if he just let this slide, he'd feel guilty if something happened afterwards. He cursed himself as this train of thought had woken up the knight within him and now that that had happened, it was pretty much a given that his time in New York would be spent looking for this superior predator. He'd look at least until he ascertained whether or not this predator was the easily provoked kind that killed at the drop of the hat or someone who had something keeping them respectable. If it turned out to be the latter, he'd jot down it/her/his stats and contact Giles to see if he knew anything. Should the former be the case, though, he'd have to do something about her/him/it and that could mean anything from killing it to drawing enough attention to it to get a superhero to take it out. Either way, the superior predator would be dealt with and he could get back to enjoying his road trip without the cloud of 'I let it happen when I could have stopped it' hanging over his head.

_Sometimes I just wish I could kill this White Knight complex I have!_ He thought as he walked back towards his hotel to gear up, _Life would be so much simpler with it attracting flies!_

He sensed me.

No one else had seen anything out of the ordinary about her.

He did

This intrigued her.

She had been trained by the best The Facility had to offer to be able to blend in perfectly with her surroundings so as to be invisible to her target and the target's guards. In all the time that she'd been in the field, not once had anyone been able to perceive who or what she truly was. Not even the fabled Captain America had been able to see her for what she was until after he'd seen the blood.

Was this young man different?

She had to find out.

_**NYC, That Night, Central Park, Xander's P.O.V**_

_Well I've managed to stop three muggings and one robbery but not one of them set off my inner Hyena like earlier today._ He thought as he strolled through the park, keeping his eyes open, _Makes me wonder if I really felt it or if I'm just going about this all wrong._

It had been his original line of logic that since there'd been no mysterious deaths during the day that he could attach to his target, then it was possible he/she/it was nocturnal when it came to hunting habits. Therefore he'd geared up with a variety of hunting gear, ranging from vamp dusting tools to a tranq gun in case of werewolf. Once the sun went down, he'd left the hotel and wandered around town in a basic search pattern centered around areas that provided a nice selection of prey but also some secluded places to do wet work. That was why he was in Central Park, potentially the most dangerous place to be after dark, since it provided many places for muggers and murderers to do their work in peace. If there was anyplace in the city where the predator he'd stumbled across would go to do its thing, it'd be right here at night. He'd stopped by a few other places where he thought he might hit paydirt but this had been the primary possibility, so he'd chosen to work his way up to it. After all, he'd been wrong before so better to check all the little places and find out he was wrong then miss something crucial. Still, he was here now and, aside from a few situations where he'd been forced to make a citizen's arrest without filing a report with the police, he'd made zero progress. This was his last stop of the night and, if he didn't find anything here, he'd have to completely rethink his M.O and start fresh looking someplace else. Part of him wanted to just call it quits at the end of the night and just enjoy his vacation like he'd originally planned but his sense of duty to the good fight wouldn't let him. Not until he had truly exhausted every avenue of approach to his current situation and then some.

He really hated himself sometimes.

For the next two hours he strolled from one end of the park to the other, hoping to catch some sort of break in his search but in the end all he had to show for his efforts was fatigue. He was about to call it a night and head back to his hotel room when a female scream cut through the night, reaching his ears like lightning. Before he even realized what he was doing he was running towards the spot where his mind had deduced the scream had come from. He cursed himself and his White Knight complex for always getting him into trouble, especially the variety of trouble that usually required a Slayer to be on hand for. Less than two minutes later he arrived at the source of the scream and the sight before him made him wish he wasn't human. It wasn't because he wanted power or anything but rather because of the sight before him making him sick to his stomach as well as disgusted that **these** were some of the people the Scoobies saved with each averted apocalypse. Before him were six thugs dressed half in gang colors and half in suits that you'd expect the higher class mob members to wear. However, what they were doing definitely put them in the gutter because at the moment they were half beating and half raping some poor woman in such a way so as to ensure the lady would need years of therapy just to be able to function. Triggering the devices strapped to his forearms, he seamlessly caught the knives in his hands before charging forward intent on ending this filthy act that was occurring before him.

He hadn't yet decided whether or not he'd end the lives of the filth in front of him.

Contrary to the 'we do not hurt/kill humans' M.O of the Scooby gang, he knew that there existed exceptions to every rule and he was making this case his exception. As soon as he got within range of the punks, he strategically slashed or thrust with his blades to force them away from the young woman. He could hear them growling, yelling and threatening him but he didn't pay them any mind. There was nothing that these pieces of filth had to say to him that he wanted to hear except perhaps their cries of pain. With that in mind he began to deal with the half assed counterattack the six attempted to put into motion and timed his moves accordingly. With a slight leaning of his body, he evaded a punch from one punk while moving forward to get inside the man's guard to deliver a slash to the guy's hip. Once his blade finished cutting, though, he immediately moved on to the next gang member, confident that the damage he'd done had taken his first foe out of the fight for a short time. This one tried to do a side-kick but all that earned the bandana-wearing fool was a stabbing blade into his thigh that went in one side and out the other. He almost lost one of his knives with that move, given how deep it was in and what the asshole did next, but he managed to yank it out before it was too late. With two enemies taken care of within twenty seconds, the remaining four pieces of filth were a little more cautious about approaching him. With his initial anger at the evil act lessening a bit, his more thoughtful side rose up and thanked any god or goddess listening that these guys didn't have guns on them. While his time fighting demons with the gang and his lingering Green Beret memories gave him an advantage, he didn't think he was good enough to handle firearms just yet. Either these guys hadn't brought guns with them or hadn't thought to use them yet, but in either case he knew he had to end this fight soon. It would only be a matter of time before the superior numbers overwhelmed him or one of them got smart enough to use the woman still-quivering on the ground as a hostage.

"Not so easy when there's somebody who can fight back, is it fellas?" He asked, putting as much confidence into his voice as possible real or not, "Howsabout we all call it a night? You go back to your crib, this lady goes to the hospital and I get back to my summer vacation. What do ya say?"

"Fuck you! We're gonna kick your sorry ass then we're gonna cut up this bitch extra nasty 'cause of you!" yelled punk number one, who had one hand applying pressure to his wound, "Get ready for a world of hurt motherfucker!"

_Now would be a great time for some superhero to show up. Any time now fellas!_ He thought as the seconds ticked by without spandex wearing reinforcements swooping in to save his sorry ass, _Figures. Never a hero around when you need one!_

Then matters got worse as another figure walked into the secluded clearing where he was and instantly he knew he was cursed with luck that Murphy could only have saved especially for him. Dressed in threads similar to the punks was something not human, obscenely muscled and looking like he was **very** annoyed at the moment. Whether it was a demon or a mutant or something else entirely, he didn't know, but he did know that it could not be good news for him in the least. Seven feet tall with thick scaly skin and Batman-like curved spikes sticking out of its forearms made for a pretty intimidating sight. Then, of course, came the razor sharp teeth that belong in the jaws of a shark and you had him cursing his White Knight complex in every language he knew.

"Wha's takin' youse guys so long?" The demon/mutant/whatever asked, sounding like he'd rather be someplace else, "Haven' you finish'd teachin' dis bitch her lesson yet?"

"We were just finishin' when this jerk-off showed up tryin' to be a hero!" Replied thug one trying to sound like he had everything in hand but with fear underneath for those that could hear it, "Just give us five, Big T, and we'll have it all wrapped up nice!"

"Dis mouse is why you ain' done yet?" Big T asked incredulously, pointing in the his direction, "He's prob'ly one a those wannabe gangbuster types tryin' to act all big an' bad! He's nothin'!"

"But Big T, he—" spoke the thug on the ground wrapping his bandana around the wound in his thigh.

"SHUT YER HOLE! I'm through waitin' fer you guys to clean dis mess up!" Big T yelled back at the gangbanger, "Stand back an' watch how a **real** gangsta takes care of business!"

With those words the curved spikes that up until then had only stuck out about an inch from the creature's forearm, grew to something more approaching five inches from root to tip.

_Like he didn't look deadly enough before._ He thought as he tried to figure out a way out of this mess without abandoning the woman on the ground behind him or dying.

Willing as much if his inner Green Beret to the surface and tapping partially into the alpha hyena, he prepared himself for what would probably be the toughest fight he'd ever been in. He had no back-up, no idea what Big T was and just had close quarters melee weapons on him that would force him to get closer to the mountain of muscle then he'd like. Nevertheless, he put one of his blades into a reverse grip while strengthening his hold on the other, since he had a feeling he did not want to lose one of his weapons in this fight. It was a good thing he got everything in order when he did because the demon/mutant/whatever went on the offensive, clearly preparing to pierce his admittedly scarred skin with his spikes. Waiting until the last moment, he used the knife he had in the reverse grip position to deflect the curved spikes away from his body while using the other to strike.

Too bad no one told him that this demon/mutant/whatever had skin like kevlar.

Despite putting half his strength behind the slash, he barely left a mark as the two of them passed and he most certainly did not draw any of Big T's blood. Bringing himself around, he barely had time to bring both of his blades up to keep himself from getting skewered by the gang leader right in the chest. It was then that he got a good idea of the gangsta's true strength and it was almost more than he could handle as his arms began to tremble a bit under the strain of holding the spikes back. Still, his own private training sessions and his Halloween inherited memories he was able to hold his ground for the most part, but he doubted that he'd be able to last long. He was proven right when Big T managed to lock up his blades in between the spikes and then, with twice the strength the demon had shown thus far, flung his arms to the sides taking the blades with them. He was shocked at this turn of events and that reaction nearly brought about his end but, thankfully, his body was able to do what his mind was temporarily incapable of. When the demon brought his spikes back towards him, he was able to leap backwards a bit but the deadly curved bone formations still missed him by centimeters. He was also unable to stay on his feet, resulting in him falling to the ground beside the woman who had curled up into a ball to hide from the situation around her.

He didn't blame her 'cause he'd wanted to hide from the truth right now as well.

Kept from that option, he did the only thing he could and quickly got to his feet before pulling his Rambo knife from its sheath and holding it out in front of himself in a defensive position.

"Still got some fight in ya, eh?" Big T asked before his movements took on a more casual pattern to them, "Good! Too many of my fights lately have been wimps. Cryin' for their mommies after their toys get taken away. But you won't do dat, will ya? You'll fight right up 'til the end like a real man!"

_Great! He's enjoying himself!_ He thought as he sized up his options or rather his lack of options.

While of a different style than the blades that just got ruined, his Rambo knife was still a blade and so it was dependant on three things to do its job. It depended on his innate strength to apply the necessary pressure when the blow was struck. It depended on the quality of the blade, both in terms of how much pressure it could withstand as well as the sharpness of its edge. Last it depended on hitting Big T in just the right spot to do the most damage while not exposing himself to a fatal quantity of danger. In terms of the first, he figured he'd have to bide his time until an opportunity showed itself for him to grip his knife with both hands and slam it down into Big T. Doing it one handed didn't even break the skin so either a double handed overhand stab or bottom up thrust was needed to do any respectable amount of damage. As far as the second part was concerned, he knew the knife was military issue and was designed to be ideal for Green Berets worldwide. The only problem was that they were designed with the idea that they'd be used on humans or inanimate objects. He sincerely doubted that anyone had been thinking about Big T when they'd made it, so it was anyone's guess as to whether or not it'd be able to hold together long enough to do its job. The last part was even more out there since he had no idea what Big T was never mind where the big guy's soft spots were located.

In short, his chances pretty much existed between slim and none at the moment.

Still, much as he didn't want to, he had to agree with the demons prediction of how things would go in the end. While a sane person might make a run for it he knew he couldn't just leave the traumatized woman to whatever fate these filth could conceive of after he'd left. He'd committed himself to rescuing her and making sure she got back to where she belonged safe and sound. He would see it through to the end.

Even if that end did turn out to be his own.

It was then that some higher being must have taken pity on him because, before he or Big T could make a move, the sound of metal scraping up against metal caught everyone's attention. Everyone wanted to know what had produced that sound and fortunately for them they didn't have long to wait because seconds later a whirlwind of steel entered the clearing. All he caught personally was a mass of long black hair, black leather with golden trim and sharp metal that reflected all the light in the area. Seconds later the mass came to a halt to reveal a young woman who looked to be about his own age with green eyes and metal claws sticking out of her hands and feet. The reason for her coming to a stop became clear a few moments later when Big T dropped to the ground in six separate pieces, black blood spraying all over the place. She took no notice of anyone at first, apparently surveying the area for further enemies, but when she turned to face those still in the secluded clearing everyone froze wondering what the she-devil would do next. Her eyes settled on him first, taking his measure apparently, before moving onto the few punks that hadn't bolted the second they'd seen their leader fall. Eye contact though proved to be incentive enough for the creeps to decide that it was in their best interest to be someplace else **immediately**. Running off like a bunch of scalded dogs, soon the only people in the clearing was him, the traumatized victim and the mysterious femme fatale that had taken apart Big T in five seconds flat.

He only took a moment to take stock of her before he decided he'd go with his gut and hope that it was right when it told him it was safe to sheath his Rambo knife. This was apparently a good move since she mirrored his actions somewhat as the two or two and a half foot blades withdrew from whence they came. The ones on her hands apparently had come from within her very hands, piercing the skin on their way out, but as he watched he saw the slits the edged pieces of metal had made heal completely in seconds. As for the ones that came from her boots he had a sneaking suspicion that the same could be said of them making him wonder who this girl was. He was about to ask her who she was when a particularly loud whimper came from the redhead on the ground and he knew where his priorities truly lay. Taking off his jacket he approached her slowly, knowing that rapid movement of any kind would only scare the victim, and once he was close enough he did his best to wrap it around her. She put up a fight at first, probably thinking that he was one of those punks, but he whispered calming words to her in an effort to reassure her that it was over. Eventually the battered woman calmed down enough that he knew she wouldn't fight him anymore and so he lifted her up in his arms just in case she couldn't stand on her own.

Turning to his beautiful rescuer he could see that she was thinking about something but what that something was he had no clue about. Her face was a mask of neutrality, not indicating anything, but when he looked into her eyes he could tell that she was confused about something. For a moment he considered simply doing nothing but he supposed in return for saving his bacon the least he could do was answer a question if he could.

"What's bothering ya?" he asked turning halfway towards her.

"It's not human. The one with the spikes on his arms." She replied in a voice that seemed so alien coming from the mouth of a teenage girl.

It wasn't that it sounded funny or anything but rather that it didn't have the qualities he'd expect from a mall crawling, gossip sharing and fashion obsessed teenage girl. She spoke more like…like a lifelong soldier who'd spend more time in the field on missions than spending time off duty with friends and family. It bothered him quite a bit that there was someone his own apparent age who was completely lacking the qualities the epitomized what it meant to be a teenager. Still, it'd probably be best to focus on the task at hand rather than deal with what would likely be a bunch of personal questions he had no right to ask someone he'd just met. First, though, he'd clear up the question that was apparently on her mind at the moment before making a minor request of her.

"Then I guess that means it's either a demon or a mutant." He said looking down at the remains of Big T that now looked like in belonged in Hell's abattoir.

"It is not a mutant. Even mutants smell partially like humans even if their mutation changes their physical appearance." Blade Sister stated, looking at him right in the eye as she spoke.

"Demon it is, then. Don't recognize the species but whatever it was it is dead now," he said filing away Big T's appearance so he could tell G-Man about it once he got back home. "Could you do me a favor and pick up my knives? Big T tossed them over next to those bushes and I'd rather not leave anything for the local P.D to find when they finally decide to show up."

With only a nod in response he watched her locate each blade, wipe them clean of both blood and prints using one of the few clean pieces of cloth from Big T's clothes before finally handing them back to him. The movements had been perfect as though she'd done that sort of thing many times before and did not really have to think about it consciously in order to do it anymore. It caused yet another question about the young woman before him to pop up on his mental list but feeling the woman in his arm shudder once more he knew questions would have to wait.

"Let's get this lady to the hospital." He said turning back to where he believed the closest park exit was, "We can make with the twenty questions we probably have about each other after."

A nod was all he received in reply, making him wonder if this person was somehow related to Oz with how little she spoke most of the time.

_**Joe's Diner, NYC, An Hour and a Half Later**_

Demons.

If Xander's explanation turned out to be the truth then there were beings of this world that matched the descriptions of creatures that had, up until now, been thought to be religious metaphors. During her missions for The Facility, she had encountered many strange people whose scent was not human in the least but, since ascertaining what they were was not a part of her mission parameters, she paid this anomaly no further attention. Now, though, it would seem that she would have to re-examine all she knew about these beings and learn more if she was to be prepared to fight them in the future. She would not seek them out but, if they were as abundant as Xander claimed, they were then the likelihood that she'd never see one again was nonexistent. With this in mind she began to ask him questions about demons and the most effective means of dealing with each breed, thus developing a mental file on each of them. While it was clear that Xander was not an expert on demons, his descriptions showed signs of firsthand experience in dealing with them and that sort of information often proved invaluable.

With her enhanced senses she could also pick up other, more personal, things about him that told her much about the young man sitting across from her. The way he praised the actions of his fellow demon hunters told her there was a strong bond between them and him. His minimizing of his own contributions spoke either of significant humility or an inferiority complex that caused him to speak in a self-depreciating manner when describing his actions. His descriptions of the various demons he'd faced alongside his friends indicated a difficult occupation and indicated that he had to possess some useful qualities of his own in order to survive as long as he had. All this she learned from the physical body language he employed as well as how he spoke and she filed this data away without any omissions. By the time he was finished answering the majority of her questions, she had a workable understanding of the most common demonic species that would allow her to deal with them should she encounter them.

However she would need to experience the requirements of demon hunting firsthand in order to truly understand this new level of the world she lived in. Secondary information was useful in an advisory capacity but nothing was superior to data obtained by actually experiencing a situation firsthand. She would have to hunt these demons herself, each breed described to her by Xander, and use each encounter to formulate her own strategies for dealing with each species.

For the immediate future though she would need a guide.

"Will you show me how to fight these demons?" she asked Xander while he took a sip of his drink.

Her inquiry apparently came as quite a shock to him since the soda he was drinking reversed directions resulting in what Megan had told her was called a 'spit take'.

She didn't see what was so funny about it.

_**One Month Later, Hell's Kitchen, Nighttime, Xander's P.O.V**_

_It doesn't show often but I think I'm making some kind of progress with Laura._ He thought as they waited in an alley across from a bar that was frequented by the demon lieutenants of several supernatural mob bosses.

It had been a month since he'd reluctantly agreed to show her he ropes when it came to hunting demons and, aside from a few money issues, he hadn't regretted a moment of it. While far from being the demon expert that Giles was, he had the good fortune (or misfortune, depending on which end of the stake you were on) of being a Sunnydale boy born and raised. With Sunnyhell being **the** place to be for demons, just about every breed took a crack at it sooner or later and that meant that the Scoobies had encountered most of them. That meant that so far he'd only had to make two long distance calls to the G-Man to get the 411 on a demon, after which the former Watcher had informed him of a reliable local source of occult knowledge. While he'd never seen the guy face to face, Stephen was definitely in the same league as Giles when it came to knowing what the things with the horns sticking out of their heads were and how to slay them. Together with his own info, he'd pretty much managed to do a passable job at teaching Laura what she'd need to know if she even got on a demon's bad side. However their actions of late had attracted the attention of the demon bosses themselves and, while he didn't think the head honchos had pieced together the 'who' part yet, they'd definitely put out some feelers.

That was the reason behind tonight's little raid on the lieutenants.

The plan, such as it was, was centered on hitting the second in commands hard and permanently while leaving evidence behind to suggest one of the human crime bosses was behind it all. With a little luck and some weird colored water that Stephen had gotten to them indirectly, it'd be enough to cloud the issue of 'who did it' enough that neither he nor Laura would have to worry about repercussions. While some might have thought that it had been her idea to hit the second seat demon mob boy's, it had actually been his. He did it because he didn't want to make his new girl's life any worse than it already had been.

It had been something he'd tried to ask her about each night they'd gotten together so he could teach her about the things that went bump in the night. He'd been so interested in learning more about who she was, what precisely she was and how she could do the things she did.

He almost wished he'd never asked in the first place.

Apparently she was both a mutant as well as a clone that had been created by this shadow organization called 'The Facility', whose business was creating weapons for their own benefit. Nothing was taboo for them. It did not matter if their materials came from the scum of the Earth or from the most innocent and precious of things, all that mattered was whether or not a viable weapon could be both produced as well as controlled in the end. Laura was not exactly forthcoming with the details of it all, he had to ask specific questions if he wanted them, but what she did tell him chilled him to the bone. They isolated her from all human contact save that of her surrogate mother, Sarah Kinney. They trained her every day in the skills and tools that she would be using until she could be considered a master in each of them. They exposed her to painful and potentially fatal radiation just to force her x-gene to become active at a younger age then it usually did. They even used brutal and inhuman methods to condition her to go into a berserker killing rage whenever her enhanced sense of smell detected a specific scent. They had her kill one of her teachers and her own mother using this method.

All of this before she was fifteen years old.

That was the reason why she didn't act like a normal teenage girl. She was trained to be a weapon almost from the moment she was old enough to comprehend what she was being told by her creators. No playing with dolls. No friends her own age. Nothing that could establish a sense of self or gain attributes that could cause her to turn against them. It both sickened and horrified him that any human being could do such terrible things! Right there and then he made the decision that once they dealt with the demon lieutenants that he'd do everything he could to help her become who she would have been had she been allowed to grow up the right way. A young woman with a life comprised of limitless possibilities and potential. He was already working on an argument that would make it impossible for her to rationally refuse his invitation to return to Sunnydale with him. At the moment it was layered with the offer of more extensive knowledge of the demons and the supernatural along with chance to do some real good. Not the most convincing argument so far, something he knew she'd take full advantage of, but he was still confident that by tomorrow it'd be air tight.

"The last one has arrived." Laura said, pointing to the demon wearing a suit that looked almost human save for the tail sticking out from beneath its trench coat.

"Good. We wait until they force out the civilians inside and put up the closed sign." He said as he went over his gear, "Once inside, get in close as quickly as you can and start taking them out. I'll cover you and keep the mages distracted."

Once again all he got for his efforts was a nod of acceptance but he chose to take this as a sign that she trusted his judgment rather than the simple fact she'd been trained to respond to orders this way. Using the local snitch network coupled with what info Stephen passed along through his messenger, Wong, they had a decent idea of who they were up against but that didn't rule out surprises. In fact, Wong had passed along that his employer strongly recommended that they not attempt a direct confrontation with the lieutenants. Not a completely unsound position, considering that second in commands were usually not much weaker than their bosses in terms of power, but they were going ahead with the mission anyways. It was his hope that by taking these boys by surprise, they could wipe out the most of them before a counterattack could be formulated and then take care of the rest with a little bait and switch moves. Not the most complex plan but, as his memories told him, it was the plan with the most pieces that had the best chance of going FUBAR on the battlefield. Keeping things simple yet effective would ensure that as few things as possible could go wrong.

With a click his equipment inspection came to an end. Three knives hidden on his person, a Desert Eagle chambered for a .357 round he'd come up with somewhere over the past month in a shoulder holster beneath his armpit, extra magazines for it under the other armpit, a Colt M1911 on his hip, a snub nose revolver strapped to his ankle and pockets with arcane baubles that could come in handy. All his guns were loaded with a mix of armor piercing rounds and hollow points with holy symbols inscribed into them using his own unique method before being soaked for a couple of hours in holy water. That would cover most mainstream demon weaknesses and, at the very least, would tear up the lieutenants enough to give Laura time to get in close. Given how quickly she'd cut Big T apart, he knew she'd have little trouble crossing the distance between the door and her targets. Those targets numbered ten in total with three of them being mages of some skill and the rest preferring the up close and personal method of dealing with people they didn't like. It was a little lopsided for Claw Girl but he'd do his best to back her up no matter what happened.

Two minutes later the owner of the bar locked the door, closed the blinds and put up the 'CLOSED' sign in the window, letting them know that the time to strike was now. Pulling out Eagle, he and his partner of the night advanced towards the entrance while keeping an eye out for lookouts. Considering just whom those in attendance were, it was almost a certainty that they had people on the look out as a precaution. Hopefully, though, their rapid approach to their point of entry would minimize the chances of their prey setting up a solid defense before the bullets started flying.

The second they were near the door Laura popped the claws in her hands, cut through the lock on the door and shoved it open so as to allow her to proceed further. Coming in behind her he brought up his gun and, once the targets came into view, he started pulling the trigger in a slow, methodical fashion. Much to his satisfaction he noticed that, as he was proceeding to the area behind the bar for cover, his custom rounds were performing admirably. Whether it was the holy symbols or the hours soaking in holy water that did it, the bullets were blowing past the seat of the pants barriers that the mages were able to bring up on a moment's notice. With mystical defenses useless his assault was inflicting serious damage to the demons, including the ones that didn't drop right away after being hit. Those that survived a hollow point or an armor piercing round to their bodies still experienced considerable pain as the holy attributes caused their wounds to burn fiercely. In the end, his incoming fire did its job in distracting the mages and some of the demon lieutenants from doing anything to impede or block Laura's advancing on their positions. Once she actually got close enough to strike at them, well, it made the guys behind horror movie special effects look like children by comparison. Blood sprayed, penetration was accomplished and more than a few heads went flying as the mutant girl used her blades to their full potential. Between the two of them they kept the demons from putting anything more than the most rudimentary defenses up and that was proving to be less than adequate for the non-humans.

In the space of ten minutes all the demon lieutenants were dead, leaving him breathing rapidly as the adrenaline high worked its way through his body. Keeping his eyes moving for any sign of trouble, he eventually concluded that the fight was over with and that there were no more incoming hostiles to deal with. Looking to Laura, he could see that she too had come to that conclusion since she retracted her claws into her body and seemed to change to an at ease stance. Checking his ammo, he could see that he still had one mag for his Desert Eagle and the rest of his firearms fully stocked. This almost made him worry that something might be up because he'd originally projected that he'd wind up being down to his snub nosed revolver before all the fighting ended. It implied a vast overestimation of his targets' abilities to have this much firepower still available but without any evidence to imply something fishy was up, he wrote it off as overconfidence on the lieutenants' parts.

With phase one completed he began to set things up for phase two, which consisted of him first setting things up for an arcane EMP to be sent out which would obliterate any mystical or metaphysical traces that they'd been there. By placing gems in precise locations about the bar, it only took a little chanting and some burning of ingredients to make it work ensuring that attempts to learn what really happened here would be hazy at best. Once that was done, he placed a large jewel embedded in a silver stand in the center of the room and, after pressing the symbols engraved in the jewel in a certain order, signaled his partner that it was time to go. The jewel would embed the image of a local human crime lord and his more recognizable stooges raiding the place and killing off the lieutenants. It'd been the trickiest part of their plan but, with a little creative thinking and the arcane equivalent of Hollywood special effects, he was confident that it would stand up to scrutiny with any errors being written off as background noise. All in all it was as good as any plan he had come up with and had gone better than he had thought it had any right to.

When headlights suddenly switched on to blind him and he heard the sounds of guns being cocked, he realized that that should have been his first clue that something would go wrong.

"Well done you two! For a pair of out of towners you managed to pull that off quite nicely." Came a gravelly voice from the center of the collection of headlights, "While I'll miss Johnny T and his excellent cooking, the trade off is well worth it."

Bringing his hand up in an attempt to block at least some of the light blinding, him he gradually made out the form of a humanoid wearing an expensive suit. There were other less defined ones further back but he couldn't make them out as well from where he was.

"Me and the other members of demonic organized crime have been brainstorming for months trying to come up with a way to declare war on the human underworld without success." Mr. Gravel said casually before putting a cigar in his mouth and lighting it, "Due to certain binding arrangements made by our predecessors, we were magically forbidden to instigate hostilities with mob bosses like Wilson Fisk or Silvermane. Of course they would not engage in hostilities with us either because of the edge our unique abilities give us over their forces. It was supposed to be the perfect deal between the two groups.

"Sadly times have changed and those currently in charge of the demonic criminal underworld are no longer satisfied with the way things are. We want more and, thanks to your little fight just now, we have all the excuse we need to get things started." Mr. Gravel explained as he tapped some ashes off the end of his cigar, "With the methods you used to cover your tracks in place, no one will see us as being in the wrong when we start hitting our human counterparts and claiming new territory. In fact, there's only two loose ends that need to be tied up in order to make the entire situation perfect."

It didn't take a genius to see what the guy meant but he'd be damned if he was going to let this guy have his way. Slipping a hand into his coat pocket, slowly, he grabbed a hold of the one ace he had that might destabilize the current situation in a way that would favor him and his partner. Using his other hand to grab their attention, he threw it out into the street and watched it shatter to emit a pulse of arcane energy. It didn't have much range, only twenty feet or so, but it would mess with the senses of any demon it hit disorienting them for a couple of seconds. Grabbing Laura's hand, he made for the nearest alleyway in an effort to put some distance between them and the demon mob bosses since fighting them would be suicide. However it was soon proven that while the demons weren't exactly seeing straight, they could still use their weapons somewhat but with diminished skill. This was the case as some idiot amongst them fired off a potent fire spell just as they cleared the front of the bar, setting off an alcohol-fueled explosion that almost obliterated the front of the building. As it was he was quite glad that the blast had gone out the front, for the most part, rather than in all directions since the alleyway he and Laura were currently in was the one between the bar and some restaurant.

When a blast of lightning streaked past his shoulder, singing his arm though he immediately chose to revise their escape plan since narrow alleys left little room to dodge incoming fire. Pointing towards a fire escape, he was right behind his partner as she began climbing for the roof of the restaurant. They had just reached the roof when a secondary explosion erupted from the bar, tearing a hole in the roof and filling it with fire that he could feel even though he was a good fifteen feet above it. He was about to point out their escape route when a hail of gunfire filled the air and burned its way through both his body as well as his partner's. It had been the one thing he hadn't been planning on when going for the roof escape and it had just cost them both. It had been a rule of his that the majority of demons didn't use guns or bombs or the like. Whether it was some sort of macho demon rule or the fact that claws and spells were better, he didn't know. However it had been his belief that with only spells and close quarters combat to worry about, dense clouds of incoming lead wouldn't be in the picture. He'd been wrong and now it was going to cost both him and Laura their lives.

The force of the rounds that had hit him had knocked him off balance and, given that he was on the edge of the roof, there was only one thing that could happen.

He fell off the restaurant roof and into the newly created skylight created by the fire, bathing him in fire until the sudden stop provided by the floor of the place halted his descent forcefully. His mind was awash with pain, making coherent thought difficult but there were two things he could be certain of at that moment.

He was going to die and so was Laura if she did what his gut told him she'd do once her body patched itself together.

_**Restaurant Rooftop, One Minute Later, Laura's P.O.V**_

Motor control and higher brain functions recovered.

Getting to her feet, she assessed the situation while keeping in mind that there were likely still hostiles in the area that needed to be dealt with.

Xander was not here. Based on her last recollection before her cognitive functions became damaged, she knew he had been hit at least four times in the torso by bullets of an unknown type. Considering the status as baseline Homo Sapiens, his wounds from those bullets would be significant, but not necessarily immediately fatal. If she got him to a hospital ASAP there was at least a sixty-seven percent chance he'd survive.

That was when she remembered that he'd fallen backwards off the edge of the roof.

Keeping low, she moved to the edge of the roof and peered over it to see the gaping hole in the roof of the bar where their mission had both begun and ended. Seeing no sign of him on the rapidly deteriorating bar rooftop, nor in the alley below, she was forced to conclude that he had fallen through the hole into the inferno that engulfed the ground floor of the building. The probability of a normal human surviving the bullet wounds, the fall and then the fire were less than five percent.

He was dead.

At first it had been her chosen course of action to withdraw from the current location, since there was nothing to be gained through continued conflict. She had minimal armaments and was outnumbered at least ten to one with a variety of weapons being used against her, some of which she had insufficient understanding of. The odds of her defeating them all were slim. However, just as she took the first step to vacate the area, something within her compelled her to rethink her position. Someone whom she'd just spent the last month learning from had been slain, killed by the demonic mobsters and used to instigate a mob war that would harm countless others.

Shouldn't she avenge his death? Prevent the war from happening?

_Negative. Avenging Xander's death would serve no purpose. He would still be dead regardless of what action I take. _She thought to herself as her training warred against the unidentified feeling inside of her, slaying those demons present would also prove useless. _If the mob demons did indeed arrange for this to happen, killing those present would do little to nullify the momentum started here tonight._

Despite this line of logic, the feeling that compelled her to throw herself at those responsible for her month-long mentor's death remained and even began to grow in strength. Soon her claws were out and she resigned herself to her new mission.

Kill every demon within a three block radius of the bar.

_**Inside the Burning Building That Was Once a Bar, Two Minutes Later, **_

_**The Space Between Seconds, Another's P.O.V**_

"Well, well, well! This is quite the little predicament you've gotten yourself into, Mr. Harris." Spoke a figure dressed in robes as he walked amidst the frozen flames around him, "Shot, bones broken and now having the dubious pleasure of being both buried as well as burned alive. Luckily I have an alternative arrangement I wish to propose to you."

_Who the hell are you?_ Alexander LaVelle Harris asked from his prone position on the floor of with a voice that sounded oddly hollow, _And why does my voice sound so funny?_

"My name is Lord D'Hoffryn, ruler of all Vengeance Demons, and as to the question of your 'voice', you aren't really speaking. It would seem in the fall from the rooftop you broke quite a few bones your jaw included." D'Hoffryn replied as he willed a Lay-Z Boy recliner into existence before sitting down on it, "I've temporarily given you the ability to converse with me telepathically in order to compensate for this little problem. If not for my intervention, I'd imagine you'd die in this inferno with no one knowing you were still clinging to life, such as it is."

_So what do you want? Here to have a last laugh at my expense or something?_ Harris inquired, rightfully suspicious of a demon Lord paying him a visit.

"On the contrary, Mr. Harris! I have come to offer you a deal that should prove to be mutually beneficial to the both of us. Now, as you may have learned from Rupert Giles, it is the calling of my followers and I do grant the wishes of all seeking vengeance upon someone or something that they have a grievance against." He explained, willing a goblet of blood into his right hand, "Now, contrary to what you may have been told, we do not service the entire planet. With over six billion inhabitants of various races and creeds, we'd be run ragged trying to keep up with all the demands for our services. Fortunately there exist those amongst my subordinates that have an affinity for being able to foretell the future and we use this to pick and choose who we will visit. We look at the big picture, so to speak.

"It was during one of these glimpses into the future that I discovered a particularly troubling future in which you and my wayward daughter, Anyanka, become romantically involved. Naturally I had no intention initially of letting her stay human forever. Her forced mortality was merely meant to teach her to be more careful with the important things," he said with the utmost sincerity in his voice. "Once that lesson was learned, I would welcome her back into the fold and matters would proceed as they have for the last millennia. However, according to the visions I viewed, her involvement with you tied her to her humanity to the point where, nine times out of ten, she rejected my offer to make her a Vengeance Demon once again. This was a problem.

"I spent months trying to conceive of a way to prevent this intertwining of fates from occurring with no success… until recently. It was when little Laura Kinney entered your life." He said with some amusement when he thought of the mortal's previous 'dating history', "It was then that I spied a possible divergence point from which a new future, one where you do not become involved with Anyanka, could be born with the right nudge at the right moment. That moment is now. The deal will be thus Mr. Harris:

"I will grant you powers of your own that will not only prove useful in your fight against the more malicious members of demonkind but also aid you in rehabilitating Ms. Kenney into a fine member of society. I can even arrange it so that continued exposure to your unique soul will have a gradual effect in breaking down the conditioning her creators forced on her," he said, leaving out the few 'quirks' he would insert during the transformation. "In return you will no longer reside in Sunnydale and only be permitted to return there for emergencies or the holidays. A rather fair arrangement if I do say so myself."

_If all you want is to make sure me and Anya don't start dating, then why don't you just leave me to die here?_ Harris asked with suspicion as well as a theory, _I can't very well date her if I'm dead._

_Damn! The boy's smarter than I gave him credit for!_ He thought before replying, "Quite right, Mr. Harris, but that leads me to what my precogs informed me about concerning the adventures your little 'Scooby gang' would experience in the coming years. You and your friends would rack up quite an impressive kill record and save the world quite a few times. Contrary to what you might think, this is a good thing for me. Compared to demons, humans are complete artists when it comes to extracting their proverbial pound of flesh from their hated foes. I am quite fond of the human race.

"So, while killing you would be the most immediate solution to my dilemma, it would also cause problems by destabilizing your little band of White Hats possibly beyond hope of recovery," he said, finishing his cover story for why he had chosen not to go for the jugular.

_Fine, but here's a counter offer: I get to come, go or reside in Sunnydale for as long as I like and in return I act like a complete jerk around Anya to the point where she'll hate men more than she ever did before._ Harris stated with confidence in his counter offer, _What do you say to that?_

It wasn't what he'd originally planned but, at the same time, there were some pluses for him that went beyond simply getting Anyanka back. If Harris remained true to his word, almost a certainty considering how his mind worked, then by the time he took Anya back into the fold she would be primed to bring down unheard of pain upon her chosen targets. The patron demon of scorned women would be back and reaching heights she'd never before achieved in his employ, a possibility that had him smiling internally as he imagined the terrors to come. However there was also a negative side to things that he was a bit concerned over. He had made several assurances to various members of Sunnydale's demonic demographic that the White Knight of the Scooby gang would cease to be a constant fixture in their small town. While most feared the Slayer, there were those more intelligent members of the unholy community who knew which member of the White Hats was the true linchpin that kept everything stable. With him only coming around every once and a while, the friction would naturally build amongst the Slayer's merry band, reducing their effectiveness in combating the darkness of their homeland. While this wouldn't affect their yearly averting of apocalypses, it would allow the more restrained members of the town to go about their business with little concern. If he took Harris' offer, those he'd assured would be somewhat put out with him and could cause some trouble for him down the line.

_Oh well! I'll just insert some compulsions to make him less inclined to permanently reside in Sunnydale long term._ He thought with a mental shrug, _Taking into account his devotion to restoring the humanity of the clone, it's unlikely that he'll stray far from her side. Add to that those forces targeting the young lady and I have no doubt he'll have his plate quite full._

"I accept your terms, Mr. Harris." He said standing up from his chair and willing away his goblet, "Therefore, with the terms established, it's time to get started. PREPARE YOURSELF!"

With that the magic began to flow and the body of Alexander LaVelle Harris rose from the ground as though gravity had ceased to be an issue. Within moments the mortal was inside a nearly invisible sphere of crimson energy, bolts of scarlet lightning raining down upon the boy's body, healing his numerous wounds. He would need to be in top condition, after all, if he was to survive the transformation to come and any lingering injuries would only make things harder. Not that he particularly cared if he made the mortal's life a little harder but, since it might affect how the human came out of the change to come, he decided to be compassionate in this respect. Once the healing had reached its logical endpoint, he decided to peer into Mr. Harris and see what there was to work with in the hopes he'd get some inspiration. He didn't really have any specific ideas of what powers to give the boy, although there were the basic enhancements he gave all his subordinates. Lingering traces of the primal Hyena, a fragment of the Slayer essence, memories belonging to a branch of America's armed forces and a few other bits no doubt picked up just by living on the Hellmouth. All in all it was a diverse group of ingredients that could be quite useful with a little boosting here and there to make things more interesting. However it was when he tapped into the boy's soul to get a read on who Harris was in a past life that things got really interesting. A Japanese hitokiri, a young man passed over for a secret government project and something he had not expected from about two and a half centuries ago.

It turned out that Harris had lived a centuries long life as a powerful youkai who lived in Japan.

Not just any youkai, though, but one that he knew all too well through a miserable little boot licker of a youkai who he'd lost a bet to back during the American Civil War. According to the terms of the wager, he'd bet that the American patriots would fall to their British overlords inside of five years. If he'd won that bet he would legally be able to claim the valuables entrusted to the little fool but, if he lost the bet, he would have to be bound by blood pact to perform any task requested. Needless to say he had been less than pleased when the war went on past his five year prediction. In retrospect, though, it could have been a great deal worse. The request turned out to be a vow to use all available resources to locate the soul of the youkai's fallen Lord and restore that noble to his former state. When asked why, he didn't do this himself the little demon said that he could trust no one in his homeland for all of them would be unable to resist perverting the wager for their own benefit.

Only an outsider could be given the least bit of trust and even then the blood pact would ensure that betrayal would cost him everything.

That was the beginning of his labor and it had not been an easy one at all. For years he used all the resources that could be counted on to find one reincarnated soul amongst **billions** and for years he received only failure as a reward for his efforts. Nevertheless, the terms of his blood pact required that he never cease his search or refrain from pursuing any lead that presented itself, no matter how slim it might have been. It had become a tiresome task that caused him to relish the moments when he had to wait for a certain test or spell to be prepared before he could resume looking.

Now his search was over.

With that in mind he summoned the talisman that the little toadie had given him that was said to be crucial for the full restoration to be achieved. With the linchpin in place, he began to chant the words that would finally allow him to bid farewell to the blood pact that had caused his fellow demon Lord's to laugh at him behind his back. As a glow came over the moon-shaped sapphire that hung in the air before him he began to channel the power required to ensure that the ritual would succeed in its entirety. When the light from the talisman changed from merely being a glow to being as bright as the sun, a pipe-sized column of light shot out from it and struck Harris in the chest.

This was the beginning of the screams as the magic at work began to transform the human into something quite different.

He ignored it, though, since it was requiring more and more of his own concentration to keep the entire operation on track as well as operating at peak efficiency. It was as he began to see cracks in the mortal boy's skin that he knew things were drawing to a close but he maintained his focus on what needed to be done. Soon the cracks became tears and the tears evolved into gaping holes with glowing pale white skin peeking through them for those with the eyes to see. Then, in an explosion that came from within the paper-like skin, what remained exploded off like leaves in a hurricane revealing a form quite different then before. Still pale skinned the form now floating before him had the physique of an award winning sprinter with purple slash marks at the joints to mach those that rested on the cheeks of the young man's head. Long silver-white hair cascaded down his back, replacing the formerly dark brown locks that the former human had possessed when it all began and fingernails that used to be too weak to do more than scratch could now rend steel asunder. With a slight pulse the energy from the talisman shifted and matter in the surrounding area was turned into energy before converging on the subject of the ceremony. Piece by piece clothing began to take form starting with flat pointed, ankle-high black boots before Sashinuki Hakama began to materialize up each leg. Next came the kimono of a mostly white color but with a red honeycomb and flower crest placed at the collar as well as at the end of each sleeve. Armor was quickly formed above the waist in the form of a Chinese cuirass that had a spike pauldron over the left shoulder while a white pelt of some kind covered the right shoulder. Finally, as the final article of clothing came into being, a golden sash with purple wave like patterns adorning the edges solidified.

It was then that a pulse unlike any that had come before it occurred that signaled that the true finale of the ceremony was about to begin.

With a draining of energy that he'd almost been unprepared for, a portal formed just in front of the talisman that possessed a diameter of two feet. While not impossible for a living being to come through, the objects that passed through the event horizon were no living beings in the traditional sense of the word. First came a sheathed katana with purple leather wrapped around the hilt and a reddish brown hilt guard that had an air about it that almost felt like it should reject demonic energy. Next came another katana with battered brown leather wrappings around the hilt and a golden circular guard with the rest of the sword concealed in its black sheath. The final object to appear was a nodachi sword with crimson leather wrappings around the hilt, a golden guard with a black sheath concealing the blade. All three weapons had an aura of power about them and, when he considered the one whom his betting adversary once served, he knew instantly the names of the swords. For a moment he was tempted to abort the ritual and make an attempt to claim the three legendary weapons for himself but his more rational side convinced him not to. No doubt Jakken had anticipated that course of action and had in place a countermeasure that could kill even someone such as him. With a regretful sigh he accepted that he would have to allow these treasures to pass him by.

For now, anyway.

Once the transformation was complete and the wager was confirmed by the toad youkai as being fulfilled, then he could pursue the three swords as he saw fit.

As the ceremony reached its conclusion, fatigue began to rear its ugly head within him and it would take more than a little effort to teleport himself back to Arashmahaar if he didn't stop soon. There were two things that he chose to do on a whim and that, unknown to him, would come back to haunt him.

The first was to plant a spell on the former human that would increase the **positive** effects he'd have on certain types of females with one in particular being targeted.

The second was a single sentence:

"Welcome back to the land of the living, Sesshomaru."

_**Inside the Inferno of the Bar, Ten Seconds Later, Xander's P.O.V**_

_Welcome back to the land of the living Sesshomaru._

That was the sentence that snapped the world back into place around him and with the world came everything that was a part of it, including the flames that danced all around him. However, instead of being worried about being burned, he was stunned by how little heat he actually felt coming from the inferno all around him. With this much fire all around him he'd have thought that he'd be sweating up a storm or something but it felt no worse than being in the car with the heat on. Even when he extended his right hand so that it was closer to the nearest flame, he only felt a minor increase in heat rather than something painful. Breathing in through his nose, he nearly lost the ability to think because of how much sharper the smell of smoke and burning debris smelled to him now. It amazed him how long it took for him to notice, considering how potent his sense of smell was now, and he wondered why he wasn't choking on the black cloud rising into to the ceiling. With all of it floating about, he should be so overcome by it that he should be on his hands and knees trying to draw in as much clean air as possible. Instead the smoke only caused him mild discomfort. He would have thought further on the changes he had undergone but when the sound of an explosion filled the air he instantly remembered the situation.

The assassination of the lieutenants belonging to the NYC demon crime families.

The revelation that it had all been arranged by the demon mob bosses to use as an excuse to declare war on the human crime families.

He and Laura had tried to escape when the demon representative and his men tried to silence the two of them so no one would find out the truth.

The rooftop.

The automatic gunfire biting into both of their bodies.

Him falling backwards off the edge of the roof and into the flame ridden bar below, fearing how Laura would react to his seemingly imminent demise.

That last thought alone was all it took for him to run for the front of the front of the building and leap through the window to the street beyond. This turned out to be a wise thing to do because, just as he landed, the bar behind him collapsed, leaving nothing but a burning pile of rubble behind. Rising to his feet, he could see that the surrounding neighborhood had been turned into a war zone with damage to buildings in every direction. Some damage was no doubt was caused by explosives but there were also signs of bullet impacts and black magic as well. It didn't take him long to find out where the fighting was taking place but what he saw shocked him greatly simply because he'd never seen anything like it before. Standing in the street, surrounded by demons, was Laura with her claws popped and an almost feral look on her face as she tried to keep all her foes in sight. The thing that shocked him though was the damage she had taken so far, despite her healing ability and the fact that she was still on her feet. During the course of his efforts to teach her how to handle certain demons, there had been a few occasions where she'd been stabbed or burned before performing the killing blow. At first he had wanted to get out the first aid kit but, before he could even voice this course of action, he was treated to the surreal sight of her wounds healing in a matter of minutes with nary a blemish to show for it. Now, though, she was covered in blood, some of it probably her own, and her clothes were barely in patches large enough to preserve her modesty or keep her from being charged with indecent exposure. His surprisingly sharp eyes could see that cuts did exist on her body from blades but, for some reason, they weren't closing as fast as he thought they should. The few times a demon had somehow managed to draw blood from her with its claws, the lacerations had closed up as quickly as her other wounds had. So unless he was missing something, these cuts should have been healing much faster than his eyes were showing him.

_Whatever!_ He thought as he dashed towards her intent on backing her up, _I can figure out that part __**after**__ we finish showing these assholes what their internal organs look like!_

However, so fast were his movements that he pretty much had to slam on the brakes a second or three after he started moving, causing him to skid to his partner's side just as the demons took notice of him.

"Who the hell are you?" asked the representative demon who looked a little roughed up but otherwise unharmed.

"Your death if you do not leave immediately." He replied in a dangerous tone in the hopes of intimidating the enemies arrayed around him and Laura.

"Listen, asswipe, I don't know what you think you are doing but no foreign demon is going to get in my way!" yelled the representative demon, whose hair began to move with a mind of its own. "I'm going to become the Kingpin of the demonic crime syndicate and no one's going to trip me up this early in the game!"

Deciding these guys needed a visual aide of what would happen to them if they didn't vamoose as soon as possible, he chose to take the representative's words as being a way of volunteering. Lunging forward with a single burst of speed, he slammed his right fist into the guys face with the intention of sending him flying into the wall of one of the buildings. As it turned out, he only half accomplished what he set out to do because, while he did send the demon tough guy flying, it was **through** the building rather than up **against** it. Judging from the way the sound of shattering stone lasted for longer than a second, it was likely that the demon went through several walls before being stopped by something. A bit surprising since it meant that Mr. Big Talk had to pretty damn tough as most people put through walls like that would splatter pretty quickly. He quickly wiped the look of surprise off his face, though, because otherwise the rest of the demons might think the punch was a fluke or that he was an amateur. Neither possibility would inspire fear in them or convince them that they should call it a night.

It was then that he noticed two of the demons were trembling with fear and slowly stepping backwards with the intent of sneaking off unnoticed. Both of them froze when his eyes fell upon them and, if it was even possible, the fear went even further up the scale to someplace closer to the breaking point. A fairly painful scent reached his nose and, as foul as it was, he had a sneaking suspicion that one of the demons just did what a spineless human would have done when scared out of their minds: lose control of the demon equivalent of a bladder.

"H-he's back! J-j-j-just like dad said," stuttered one of the demons, whose fear must have dipped enough to allow him to speak. "Gone for two hundred years! Now h-h-he's **back!**"

"What're you yammering about, fool?" asked one of the other demons who sounded almost completely sure of himself, "Who's back? Who is this guy?"

"S-S-Sesh-Sesshomaru! L-Lord Sesshomaru!" replied the trembling demon whose legs finally gave out on him.

"Who?" asked the demon angrily before noticing that some of the other demons were beginning to show signs of increased fear as well.

"The Tai Inu-Youkai of the West! The son of the great Dog General of Japan!" Replied another demon, who appeared to be playing his own mental version of 'anywhere but here'. "It took a power strong enough to almost wipe Japan off the map to kill him but even then they said he would someday return to reclaim his throne! I never believed in it but…"

"You idiots! Don't you see what this guy's doin'?" asked the confident demon with growing anger, "He's trickin' ya somehow! Probably had some human witch or warlock cast some spells on him. Maybe he's even a sorcerer himself! Now stop acting like a bunch of hatchlings and kill those two! We got a job to do!"

"Nuh uh! You want to get yourself pounded by a Youkai Lord, go right ahead!" spoke a demon who was about to turn around and walk away, "Me? I plan on living! See Ya!"

"Coward! I'll show you how tough this guy is," snarled the confident demon before charging forward with the intent of tearing 'Sesshomaru' limb from limb.

It was almost strange seeing the demon approach because while he knew in the back of his mind that the monster was moving pretty fast it looked like someone had hit the slow motion button on everything but him. Due to this fact he had no trouble evading the demon's attacks and, when the time came, he struck with such speed that the momentum of his blow caused his fist to pierce the demon's chest and exit out the thing's back. The world seemed to snap back into normal time then, just in time to hear the now impaled creature's final gurgle before dying, and seeing what he'd done, he immediately pulled his arm out of the demon. It was disgusting to have his entire right arm covered in demon blood right up to the elbow and he just knew it was going to take quite a bit to wash it off. He'd heard Buffy complain enough about how hard it was to clean off the blood and guts from the latest demon she slew. Now he knew precisely how she felt and hoped he could find a shower or something soon because otherwise he'd have a harder time scrubbing it off later. Looking back up and around to the demons still present, he could see that his unintended impalement had only served to further their fear of him. Deciding that prolonging this fight with abilities he didn't fully understand and, thus, couldn't control precisely would be a bad idea, he decided to build on this 'Lord Sesshomaru' identity they'd slapped on him.

"Are there any others who would dare attack us?" he asked in a way that would clearly indicate he was speaking royally in reference to himself, "Then leave us and inform your masters to abandon this idea of starting a mob war between the humans and themselves. This Sesshomaru will not support such a dishonorable tactic, nor permit it to proceed. GO!"

This was all the excuse the demons needed to high tail it out of the area but he had a suspicion that that they wouldn't be taking his message back to their superiors. In the demon world the phrase 'do not kill the messenger' didn't exist and all too often those that passed on bad news lived just long enough to wish that they'd suckered someone else into delivering the message. Truthfully, those demons currently fleeing for their lives would probably catch the first ride out of town they could get their hands on and then find a hole someplace to jump inside. He waited until he was sure that they were well outside the range of any of the demon senses he was aware of before he let the noble Lord routine drop. Quite frankly it chaffed against his true nature and he was glad to be rid of it. Turning around to where Laura was so they could plan their next move, he quickly stopped moving the second he set eyes on her.

The reasons for this were twofold.

The first was that the young woman still had her claws out even though, to his knowledge, all of their enemies had left the area.

The second was that she was looking at him without the light of recognition in her eyes that let him know that she knew who he was.

It was then that the light bulb flicked on in his head and he realized that, along with his new clothes and abilities, it was quite probable that other things may have changed as well, like his face and his scent.

He was fairly certain that his voice was still the same, if a tad bit more aloof sounding, but that was probably the reason why she hadn't immediately labeled him as a hostile/enemy just yet. He was going to have to do something pretty impressive to show her that appearances to the contrary he was still Xander Harris where it counted. Thinking long and hard, he tried to figure out what was so 'Xander' that there'd be no way that Laura could mistake it for anything else and thus be convinced that it really was him. In the end there was only one thing. He just hoped that she didn't suddenly pick up the stereotypical reaction that most women had when he did something like this.

"So… you must go through a lot of clothes with all the fights you get into." He said with a hand nervously scratching the back of his head, "It's a good thing you're not all that modest, isn't it? 'Cause I usually don't get to see this much skin outside of a trip to the beach."

This seemed to do the trick since, with a 'snikt', her blades went back into her body and she slipped out of what he'd termed her 'I am about to turn you into confetti' stance. He watched her step closer to him and figured that she was just going to sniff him like she sometimes did to confirm his scent after they got separated and there was a chance of being tricked. It made him a tad uncomfortable but, seeing as how Oz did it sometimes, he was willing to endure it if it meant that Laura could be convinced by it that he was who he said he was. However when she stopped just outside of the normal position that she usually used her keen sense of smell on him, he had to wonder what was going on inside that pretty little head of hers.

His answer came precisely three seconds later.

**SLAP!**

_Guess she's picked up a lot more than I thought. _

_**Two Days Later, A Small Motel Outside of New York City, Morning, Laura's P.O.V**_

He was Xander and yet he wasn't.

It was something she'd been thinking about ever since they fled the scene of the confrontation between the demon mobsters, the young man claiming to be Xander and herself. With her sharp mind she recalled everything that happened that night and everything her training told her said that Xander should have died when he fell into the hole in the bar's roof. He received as many shots to the torso as she did and did not possesses a healing factor to handle it and the addition of a fall from such a height should have made death occur in seconds. Yet, at the same time, though, this new person did possess many of the same attributes she used to identify Xander, from his body language to a trace of his old self in his new scent. His explanation for his changes, while a bit beyond her current grasp of the supernatural, did seem plausible but she would err on the side of caution for the time being. She would wait, either for her own knowledge of the supernatural to increase or for more definitive proof of his identity to be shown, then she would make her decision as to whether or not she'd trust him. Until then she would keep the connection between the two of them strictly professional and nothing more than that.

Looking over to where he sat up against the headboard of single person bed, she saw that he was apparently in deep thought over something. He claimed that it was because of the changes his body had gone through and all of the new attributes he'd acquired in the process. Apparently his five basic senses had been increased to levels equal to or perhaps surpassing her own and, coupled with his increased speed as well as strength, it made for a rather drastic change from baseline human. Her memories supported that claim up to a point. She was somewhat disturbed though by the feelings she experienced whenever she entered close proximity to his weapons though. On the surface they looked like two katana and a nodachi but she believed that they were more than what they appeared to be on the surface. She had no rational evidence to support this… belief but she felt certain that she was right.

She was just about to go take a shower when her cell phone rang. She knew who it was, only **he** knew the number, and for a moment she debated whether or not to answer it. While it was still mostly under wraps, she had heard from various sources that many mutants had somehow lost their powers and had been changed into baseline humans. If the same could be said for the mutants living at the Xavier Institute, then no doubt **he** wanted her to go there both for her own personal safety and to help ensure the safety of those who lived there. She understood the practical side of things but she also knew that she'd be spending time with people her own age and that made her moderately uncomfortable. Since she'd been freed from The Facility, the number of really close friends she'd made could be easily counted on both hands. Megan, Debbie, Kidden, Catiana, Jade, Rachel and Kitty were the people she felt a connection to and who felt most worthy of the title 'friend'. If she did as he wanted, she would likely have to make more friends or at least cope with a broader range of teenage behavior that she was familiar with. Add to that the fact that she was still uncomfortable dealing with people in a non-mission oriented environment and she did not want to go to a place where there'd be so many people her own age. However, as the ringing persisted, she knew that **he** would likely continue calling her until she answered and if by some chance she refused to, **he** would come looking for her.

In the end she decided that she didn't want him to arrive here since that would lead to a possible initiating of hostilities between **him** and Xander. So, picking up her cell phone, she pressed the button to accept the call and placed the device against her ear. She could hear him on the other end and she knew that he could hear her as well but she could not think of anything to say beyond how she missed her friend Rachel.

"You might as well say hello, kid. I can hear you breathing." Weapon X said in his usual rough voice.

"I miss them." She said, knowing that he would make the connection.

"I know you do. But they aren't there anymore." Logan said, sounding genuinely understanding.

"She was my only friend." She stated, referring to Jade, who was forced to leave due to her family's criminal connections and what happened.

"I know she was, Laura." Wolverine said compassionately. "I know she was… but she's gone now and you being there won't bring her back. Look, you're breaking my heart, but I didn't call to talk about that. You have to come back."

"No!" she said with a bit more vehemence than she had wanted to.

Despite her efforts to become more 'human', more like a normal girl, she was still more weapon than young woman and this left her unprepared with the experiences that normal girls took for granted. She didn't know how to react half the time or how to handle what she was feeling within her own body. It was one of the reasons why she traveled alone and didn't stay in one place too long. As long as she was alone, she'd have nothing to worry about, she could cling to the safety her training gave her, and she could proceed towards humanity at her own pace.

"You and I had a deal and I kept my end of it. I didn't tell anyone I knew you." Weapon X said a little more firmly, "I even let you slash me across the face, something I don't remember agreeing to, but whatever. And you—"

"I tried!" she shouted, knowing what her part of the deal was.

"No, you didn't." Logan shot back, thereby preventing her from going any further, "No more alien costumes, no more growling and no more BS! You have to come back and try it for real this time."

"They'll find me there. They found me once before." She said, indicating that she'd only be bringing her Facility problems with her if she came to the Institute.

"You're probably right. But do you think Weapon X will ever stop looking for me?" Wolverine asked rhetorically, pointing out that he wasn't without complicated pasts either, "Not a chance! But that doesn't matter now. The world just got a whole lot scarier and the kids at this school need you."

"But—" she said, trying to come up with some kind of counter argument that'd work.

"And more importantly, you need them!" Weapon X said, not willing to hear any sort of further protesting, "The only chance you have is here, Laura. If you don't come back, you're already dead. Trust me, just come—"

That was as far as she let him go before she severed the connection and threw the cell phone across the room just like she wished she could do to Logan right now. It shattered against the wall and, with a slight wince, she realized that Xander had overheard her entire conversation, both her side as well as Logan's if his ears were that good, and would have an opinion of his own.

"So…roadtrip, huh?" he said without looking at her, "Sounds like fun. When do we leave?"

"We?" she asked, not recalling ever having inviting him nor Logan mentioning anything.

"Of course! I could tell you weren't exactly crazy about going there so you could probably use some company." Xander replied matter-of-factly, like there was nothing to talk about.

While she'd like to have refuted this, she had to admit that it could be useful to have someone to distract Logan and the others so they didn't focus so much on her. Add to that the fact that he would probably wish to find a way to become human again and it was only logical that he should come to the Institute. With the technology they possessed and Dr. McCoy present, there was a better than fifty percent chance of Xander either becoming human again or at least coming to terms with his new status.

Then there was the fact that she owed him a debt for teaching her about the supernatural aspects of the world.

"We will leave at noon. Be ready." She said as she proceeded to the bathroom to shower.


	2. Welcome to Mutant High School

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material contained herein. They are the rightful property of their respective creators and associated companies. I make no profit off of this whatsoever. I write to for my own fun and for the enjoyment of those who like my work.

_**Outside of 1407 Graymalkin Lane, Evening, Xander's P.O.V**_

_Well…we're here!_ Xander thought as he looked at the front gate of the Institute.

It was definitely a big place and he could see through the metal bars that there were quite a few teens strolling across the grounds along with some adults he presumed were instructors or staff members. While he had sort of expected it, he was still a bit amazed to see so many mutants around with such varying appearances. Not that he was exactly one to point fingers since he didn't exactly look normal either, thanks to that makeover he received in the burning bar. He still couldn't remember much between falling through the hole and waking up but he did recall someone saying something to him.

_Welcome back to the land of the living, Sesshomaru._

That name, Sesshomaru, was also what the demon called him after he'd dealt with the head representative of the demon mobsters. It was obviously a name of some kind, the name of a demon Lord, but it didn't ring any bells for him and that was odd considering how petrified the demons had been upon seeing him. You'd think that a demon Lord that could inspire that kind of fear would be in all of the big books or that the Scooby gang would have heard something about this guy before. But he'd heard nothing whatsoever about a Lord Sesshomaru and that meant that once he was sure that Laura was okay, he'd call G-man to get some answers. He'd probably have to wait awhile before getting any kind of answers or anything since the name had never come up before but he'd feel a lot better if he had some background info to go with the name. Once he had that, he could decide whether what happened to him was a good thing or a bad thing. Well… being turned into a demon was not one hundred percent good no matter how you looked at it, but at least if this Sesshomaru had a few redeeming qualities, he might be able to bear it if he wound up stuck like this. If this Tai inu youkai of the west turned out to be some sort of supreme evil or just an all around jerk, though, he was definitely going to hate this situation.

It hadn't taken him long to change into some normal clothes but it had been a close call getting them from his hotel room the night of the fight, considering his noticeable appearance. Fortunately the person at the front desk had bought the idea that he was coming back from some sort of comic book convention and had even complimented him on his 'costume'. It was only dumb luck that whatever had changed him had also possessed the kindness to make sure his wallet, car keys and hotel room key didn't go poof in the fire. If those things had gone up in smoke he'd be in something of a jam since he was pretty sure that the hotel staff would have needed some kind of proof of identity before they'd have given him the spare room key. Once he had all of his stuff, though, he'd met up with Laura in a small park nearby, where they came to the decision that it'd be a good idea to relocate for a while, just in case. It had also been decided that relocating together would be to their benefit since it would mean a higher probability of repelling an enemy assault as a team than separately. It didn't take them long to find a suitable motel with a vacancy and, once they did find it, they stayed inside for the entire two day stretch prior to the call from the Institute to minimize the chances of them being spotted. It had all gone pretty smoothly thanks to the memories he'd inherited from the soldier. She'd been trained in military-like protocols and procedures since she was seven so it was fairly easy for them to set up a watch rotation. So, all in all, things had gone pretty smoothly but like most things he didn't expect it would last for very long.

This was proven to be correct when a short but hairy guy in blue, black and yellow spandex started walking up to the front gate. It was obvious that he was some kind of superhero but he couldn't place the outfit. Once the guy got close enough, it was obvious the guy was surprised to see two people present rather than just one like Hairy Dude had probably expected. It made sense since Laura'd smashed her cell phone and, to his knowledge, hadn't made a single call while they were packing their things. He presumed that this guy was Logan, the guy who called up Laura, and when he thought about it, he could kind of see a family resemblance between the two of them. Logan was giving him the hairy eyeball but it didn't look like he was either for or against the presence of a newcomer. In the end it didn't seem to matter since the superhero opened up the gate and then turned around with a silent invitation for the two of them to follow. Looking at Laura, he didn't have long to wait to find out whether or not she was going to take up invitation so, with a shrug, he took up the rear of their little three-person procession.

He got a lot of looks from some of the other students but that was probably due more to the fact that his now white-silver hair went down to just past his waist rather than the normal short brown. Needless to say there weren't that many people with hair that long and those that did were all female, so for a guy to have it, well, they probably thought he was either gay or just plain weird. Not that he had a thing against gay people, not at all, he just didn't want anyone to think he was gay. He was an all around straight guy! Yep! Straight as an arrow! Besides, you'd think that with all the different shapes, sizes and colors mutants came in that his new look would be fairly unremarkable. Still, they looked and it made him hope that he got out of sight as soon as possible since all this sudden attention was not making him feel any better about being here.

Still, he kinda liked the fact that most of the ladies were giving him a good long look.

It was more than he'd ever gotten back in Sunnydale.

Once they were inside the mansion his ears could immediately hear the sounds of people but what he heard the most though was some kind of cocky asshole talking in the nearby living room. He couldn't quite make out the words just yet due to his inexperience with his new senses but as he, Logan and Laura got closer the words became clearer.

"I know it's hard to tell with you, but last time I checked, 'you' just became a part of 'them'." Mr. Asshole said smugly as though he was just naturally better than the person he was talking to.

"What the hell is your problem, Keller?" came an angry young woman's voice who obviously had no love for Mr. Asshole.

"Nori, it's okay…" came a deep male voice that apparently was the target of Mr. Asshole's verbal assault.

"No, it's not!" Exclaimed Nori, who obviously wasn't pleased at all with the topic of conversation.

"It's okay because David knows that when we're all up against the wall, he'll be free and clear," Keller said with mock politeness in his tone. "Did he tell you about his little phone call with Harvard yet?"

"What?" Ms. Spitfire exclaimed, clearly not having heard about this before now.

"Nori, I—" David started to say something but didn't sound like he'd expected to have to come clean like this.

"It's better this way, Ashida. He doesn't belong here or with you, not anymore." Keller said, sounding like it was written in stone.

"And why is that, Julian?" Came an unknown but definitely upset woman's voice.

Obviously this Julian Keller had just put his foot in it big time.

"Please, tell me. Why is it 'better' Julian?" Ms. Offended asked in sharp tones, "Because David is human now? Are humans not worthy of being loved in your eyes?"

"Sofia, it's not like that." Julian said stumbling over his words to recover from his verbal screw up.

"You used to call me 'beautiful'. Am I less so now?" Sofia asked even though it sounded like she already knew the answer.

"I…" Julian said but proved to be unable to come up with anything smart to say.

"Just STOP, Julian. You're making fools of both of us." Sofia said before striding away from Keller but closer to Laura and Logan.

It didn't take him long before the woman entered his line of sight but when he did see her he had to wonder what kind of idiot Keller had to be to piss off someone so beautiful. Even clad in something so basic like jeans and a T-shirt, she was someone who'd fit right in with Queen C's Cordettes. While not an expert on the whole mutant scenario, he knew that some mutants had something of a swelled head thanks to their powers. Apparently Keller was among those that thought that had mutant powers were somehow better than normal humans. Not enough to make him one of those 'mutants are the next stage of evolution' types that wanted to inherit the planet as soon as possible but enough to make him a serious jerk.

"Sofia, wait!" Julian yelled realizing his error.

"We're not finished yet, Keller!" Nori said, obviously not willing to let the guy go until she'd completely spoken her mind.

"You just picked the worst time to mess with me, little girl." Keller said with serious 'tude in his voice.

Feeling a charge in the air, he knew that powers were going to start flying soon and apparently so did Logan since the short superhero moved forward. Deciding to keep the group together, both he and Laura followed the costumed guy into the living room. Inside there was a collection of kids watching something on a HUGE screen TV but the center of everyone's attention though was some kid floating high in the air while a blue haired girl wearing metal gauntlets looked ready to throw down.

"Am I interrupting something?" Logan asked in a tone that was daring the two quarrelers to say something stupid. "No? Good. This is Laura, my sister, and her friend Xander. She's a genetic clone created from my DNA and he's apparently some kind of demon and…You know what? It doesn't matter. The bottom line is, she has my claws and, yes, she could kill you if she wanted. So don't make her want to. As for Xander, I expect you to treat him with the same respect you would a fellow student. Consider yourselves introduced."

With that Logan turned and walked away but, before he left the room entirely, he turned his head back to the collective group in the living room.

"For the record, my money's on Nori." Logan said, obviously predicting who'd win a fight between Nori and Julian.

Unfortunately, once Logan was out of sight and presumably out of hearing range, the blue haired girl whom he presumed was Nori turned to Julian, looking like she wanted to pick things up where she and Julian left off. An African American teen, possibly David, also noticed this and immediately put a restraining hand on her shoulder in a move to keep a fight from breaking out.

"Let it go. He's not worth it." David said, urging caution with his voice.

"Can't I kill him just a little?" Nori asked, looking like she might shrug off David's arm.

"You wish, Gloves." Julian said, obviously recovering his former cockiness despite putting his foot in his mouth with Sofia.

"Come on, guys. I've got a better way to blow off steam." David said heading for the entrance/exit to the living room.

With that David walked off and most of the others followed him, though their reasons might have had less to do with blowing off steam and more to do with getting away from Julian and Nori.

"I'll see you later, tough guy." Nori said before leaving the room herself.

"Looking forward to it." Julian said with his usually 'I am the greatest' attitude.

It was then that he noticed that not all of the teens were joining the main group and some of them were apparently Julian's friends.

"Where are you going, Cess?" Julian asked, sounding mystified as to why one of his own friends was giving him the cold shoulder.

He had no trouble hearing them speak given that both Cess and Julian were heading in his direction but this was something he truly wished he didn't have to hear.

Arrogant ignorance was definitely not something he had a high tolerance for.

"Julian, I love you, but it's time for us to grow up." Cess said before storming off to hook up with the rest of the group.

All the while this was going on, both he and Laura simply observed what was going on since they knew that neither of them had any right to step in. However the combination of the fight with Nori, the screw up with Sofia and his own teammate turning away from him was enough to put Keller in a seriously bad mood.

"What are you looking at, clone?" Julian asked angrily while using the word 'clone' like it was some kind of curse word.

This, he decided, could not be permitted to go without some sort of warning.

"Her name is Laura," he said as coldly as possible. "Prove to everyone you at least have the memory retention to remember that."

THAT stopped everyone who was in hearing range in their tracks and caused a few to actually turn around to look at him. Obviously they were somewhat surprised to hear someone who'd just arrived speak to this Julian guy like that. He didn't let it sway him. As far as he was concerned, the arrogant asshole needed someone to take him down a few pegs and if none of them were willing to speak to Keller that way, he would for however long he was allowed to stay.

He would not allow them to get away with mistreating Laura just because she wasn't born the natural way or because she was raised the way she was. She had no control over either of those things and shouldn't have been made to suffer because of all that. Sure, she wouldn't show any surface signs of being upset or sad but, unless he was very much off, he was pretty sure he could **smell** the emotions she was feeling. While creepy, it was still a nice ability and something he was already coming up with multiple useful ways he could employ it.

Knowing when he was accidently pissing off a girl he was trying to pick up was just one of them.

_**The Office of Headmistress Emma Frost, Ten Minutes Later, Emma Frost's P.O.V **_

_That man can be so obtusely optimistic at times!_ Emma thought as she looked down at her desk contemplating the discussion she'd just had with Scott, _If I wasn't so in love with him, I would do something to change that._

Regardless of the outcome of the discussion, she was still left with one potential threat as well as one potential asset, assuming that the Harris boy could be persuaded to leave X-23 behind. What thoughts existed on the surface of his mind showed him to be a rather interesting young man and definitely better than one would expect considering his home life. Surviving eighteen years of verbal and physical abuse at the hands of his drunken parents showed that he has amazing mental resilience and that was always a good thing to have in this troubled world. However, when she had tried to peer deeper into his mind, she'd encountered some resistance but, since she'd had the concerns about Logan's clone to worry about, she had chosen to cease her inspection of Xander's mind. Now, though, with the less troublesome method of ridding the Institute of the girl assassin gone, she thought it might be time to try multiple, less potent means of attack. One such means could be finding a way to turn the boy against his former student in supernatural matters, reducing the possible means of protection she'd have to only Logan. While Wolverine might be a valued member of the team he was also an unstable element at times. She was confident that, phrased the right way, she could persuade the majority of the faculty, including Scott, that the Institute simply wasn't the right place for a weapon like X-23. If even the person she traveled to the Institute with agreed with this statement, then she was certain that the little claw girl's welcome here would be quickly revoked.

With that in mind she left her office and began to make her way down to the med-lab where Beast was currently giving Xander an examination. From what she had just learned from McCoy's head, the young man had been one hundred percent human a week ago and was only changed into his present form a little over forty-eight hours ago. At first she thought that the boy had simply been changed by a late-activating x-gene since that was a more reasonable explanation than being turned into a 'demon Lord'. However, as she continued to eavesdrop on the proceedings, even as she entered the elevator that would take her to the lower levels, it looked as though the boy's biology was completely non-human. While it was true that some mutants suffered drastic changes to their biology, the presence of the x-gene or some other telling sign of their status as a mutant was always present. If her skimming of Hank's thoughts were truthful, though, none of his more successful scans positively identified him as a mutant. As she exited the elevator, she watched through McCoy's eyes as the examination continued revealing that, while the young man's physiology bore some similarities to an ordinary human's, there were other things that were a mystery. It was as she entered the med-lab that Hank asked if he could run some tests on the boy's swords and Xander's reaction to this was interesting to say the least.

He leapt away from the blue furred former football player and, from what she could tell, placed his right hand on the hilt of one of the sword's completely on instinct.

Her belief that Xander hadn't consciously done this was proven to be true when a look of surprise appeared on the face of the golden-eyed boy. A surface scan of his mind also supported the stance that the young man had not been aware of his actions from the moment Hank made the request to arriving at a location ten feet away from where he'd been with a hand on the hilt of a sword. Already his mind was a storm of questions but most of them focused on themes of 'what have I become' or 'what do I do now'.

Fortunately this presented her with a rare opportunity to bring the young man around to her way of thinking.

"I'm sure that this might be quite troubling, Xander, suddenly finding yourself in a body that no longer resembles the one you used to have and possessing instincts that surge forward before you can stop yourself," she said, falling into her role as a woman of experience. "I assure you that we will do everything we can to restore you to your former self. No resource will be left untapped. Should the worst happen and you are forced to remain as you are now, you are welcome to remain here at the Institute until such time as you fully understand your new self."

"Thanks." Was all Xander said in response, though this was likely more to due with the lingering shock of how he'd reacted a few minutes ago than any intended impoliteness towards her.

"Perhaps I can alleviate some of your concerns right now," she said as she put her next move into effect. "I am a telepath thanks to my status as a mutant. With your permission, I could enter your mind and see if there are any unpleasant surprises in there or simply instincts that need to be brought under control."

"Are you sure that's necessary, Emma?" Hank asked, obviously the sort not to go looking for trouble if there was insufficient reason to do so.

"He has already shown that he does possess uncontrollable reactions to certain situations, Hank. What if the next one he exhibits results in him attacking a student?" She asked in return while never letting her eyes leave Xander. "Besides, this will only be a reconnaissance mission. I will inspect his mind to see if I can find the source of these reactions and determine its nature. If it is something that Xander can be trained to repress, then I will go no further with my telepathy. However, if it is something he has little hope of controlling on his own, then a more unconventional method may have to be employed."

Looking at Xander, she could tell he wasn't entirely thrilled at the idea of someone rooting around inside his head but, from what she could tell, it was not the result of rumors about her past floating around the Institute but rather the fact that she was a stranger to him. Something she would definitely have to change and perhaps transform into a strong friendship somehow. His features, while somewhat feminine in certain areas, were pleasing to the female eye and the way he punched the 'demon' through several walls implied great strength. Considering that superhuman strength might just be the tip of the iceberg with him in terms of what he could do, one might say he'd be quite the catch for any of the female students at the Institute. Perhaps even for Celeste, Phoebe and Mindee. Her girls had not made many ventures into the dating scene, given how terrible it'd gone for them in the past, but based on what she'd seen inside of his mind so far, he'd be an acceptable boyfriend for any one of them. Still, first thing first, she had to get him to trust her if she was going to persuade him to see things from her perspective.

"Do I have your permission?" She asked making in clear both with words and tone of voice that he was the one in control of this situation.

"Sure. Just… try and keep some of the things you see to yourself, okay?" he asked with visible discomfort at what was about to happen.

"Of course. Everything I learn will be protected under doctor-patient confidentiality." She said while at the same time thinking, _Of course if I find something that poses a threat to me, this school and it's students, then some very tough choices will have to be made._

With that in mind she placed her fingertips on either side of the young man's head (even though such action wasn't strictly necessary) and, with finesse born of years of practice, she entered his mind in a more thorough manner than before. It only took a few seconds for the mental landscape to settle around her and, as she looked around, she found what she'd expected to see for the most part. A small Californian town was laid out beneath her feet, confirming what she'd already discovered about Xander through her own efforts. Lowering herself to the ground, she could see that unlike some mental landscapes, this one did have metaphorical people walking about but something seemed a little off. At times these people looked completely human but, when one of them entered a shadow, their eyes turned golden and their foreheads took on caveman characteristics. There were other signs as well, such as a young woman of Incan descent walking down the sidewalk on the other side of the street who seemed to emit a cloud of dust every time she breathed outwards. She also felt a sense of… evil about the place that was almost impossible for her to perceive. It didn't necessarily mean that Xander had some hidden evil within him but rather that he had a dark side to himself that rested just below the surface.

The same could be said for many people so she didn't concern herself with it too much.

Continuing along the streets, it was only a minute or two before she picked out several oddities that did not mesh with the primary elements of the environment. For the most part the landscape around her was your typical small American town but every once and awhile she would spot some piece of architecture or some object that had a distinctly Oriental nature to it. Japanese, if she wasn't mistaken. While this could simply mean that this town, most likely Xander's home town, had the equivalent of a 'Little Japan' district, it felt more like these Asian additions were more recently incorporated into the rest. This, she felt, was a sure sign of the unknown mental aspects she had entered the young man's mind to find and so she focused her efforts on locating the densest concentration of these Oriental attributes. Logically, if she directed her movements towards the areas where these foreign elements were at their highest concentration, she would eventually find the central nexus of it all. Moving at a brisker pace now that she knew what to look for, she traveled blocks in a slightly roundabout pattern before a more direct/straight route took form. It took some time but eventually she found the central point of the foreign elements and was slightly troubled by what she saw.

While the wall surrounding the property was from the current time period and had 'Sunnydale High School' written on a sign next to the front gate, the actual structure on the property was definitely **not** American in nature. Stretching up into the sky behind the stone wall was what could only be described as a Japanese palace that, if size was any indicator, belonged to a high ranking feudal Lord. She could even see a short and bald troll-like person sweeping up some leaves while muttering about students being a waste of space. Curious, she used her telepathic abilities to lift herself into the air so that she could enter the property for a closer but, just as she was about to cross the border, a barrier shot up, throwing her back to the ground. A strong mental barrier it was, strong enough to repel her, but she was confident that she could breach it without causing Xander any undue harm. Rising back into the air, she prepared to use her powers to create an opening for herself but quickly found herself facing one of the **coldest** and most intimidating faces she had ever encountered. Formed from the barrier itself, it looked at her and while she could see some similarities between it and Xander's own face they were obviously not the same. It looked at her as though she were beneath it, less than it, but at the same time had an air of annoyance that it conveyed to her. Eventually, though, it seemed to reach a decision and spoke.

"You do not belong here. BEGONE!"

With those words she found herself flung high into the air by some invisible force and, before she knew it, she was back in her own body, kneeling on the floor while Xander simply looked at her. He had a look on his face that was eerily reminiscent of the one the barrier had given her but it only lasted for a moment before the boy returned to himself and looked at her in concern.

"Are you alright, Ms. Frost?" he asked, extending a hand to help her get back to her feet.

"Fine, Xander." She said, despite the fact that she felt a headache coming on. "It would seem that in addition to your physical abilities you have some limited telepathic abilities as well. I believe I managed to find the source of your impulses and, while I do not believe they are beyond your ability to control, I would ask that you avoid situations where you might feel threatened. The foreign elements seem to react strongest in those situations."

"Not a problem." Xander said, sounding quite honest. "Contrary to what my friends back home might say, I don't actually go looking for trouble. It just seems to come and find me most of the time."

"Well, anyone or anything that happens to come looking for you here Xander will find themselves with quite a bit more trouble than they bargained for." Hank said, covertly stating that while he stayed at the Institute he'd receive the same level of protection as any other student residing here.

"Thanks, Hank." Xander said and, with a nod, the young man left presumably to look for X-23.

While her conversation with the young man hadn't gone entirely according to plan, nor had the inspection of his mind, she had gained valuable knowledge about him. She had discovered that he possessed moderate telepathic abilities or, at the very least, strong mental defenses that could probably handle everything short of an Alpha or Omega-level telepath. She had also learned that the nexus of his recent alterations was at least semi-sentient since she didn't think he had actually been the one to throw her own of his mind. That made him quite interesting indeed.

Nevertheless, the honest truth was that, despite some concerns, she didn't believe him to be a serious threat to the school. He would probably need to work with Logan or some of the other X-Team members who had trouble controlling their inner selves, but that wouldn't be difficult. Now all she had to do was take what she'd learned about his personality and use that information to turn him away from X-23. Once that was done, she could start considering who among the student body would be appropriate for him to associate with and employ a series of well-placed nudges to make it happen. Depending on how things turned out, she might make an attempt at playing matchmaker for him.

_I wonder if Cessily would be interested?_ She thought as she tried to picture how the Hellion team member known as Mercury would react when placed in a romantic situation with Xander.

_**That Night, The Hallways of the Mansion, Xander's P.O.V**_

_I think Frost may have stirred something up in my head earlier today._ Xander thought as he strolled the halls of the halls of the Institute, _Sleeping was harder tonight than usual._

Then again his sleeping habits had undergone a massive change since he'd gained his new form, dropping from his usual nine or ten to just four. It had been a pain in the ass to go to bed the first night and wake up at five in the morning rather than noon like he'd expected after such an eventful night. At first he'd dismissed it as just being a side effect of the change and that after a full day of activity, his sleeping pattern would reset back to the usual.

No such luck.

It happened again the following night and it got him wondering just how long he'd have to wait before getting a full eight hours of sleep. Would he need to work his ass off first? Considering what his new body was apparently capable of so far, it'd probably take quite a bit to completely exhaust it. With a sigh of annoyance at the drawbacks that came with his finally getting powers that could make him a real player fighting alongside his friends, he continued to stroll, if not saunter, the hallways. Hopefully he could find something to keep him occupied until morning and then he could revisit Hank to see if he knew of any way to turn him back to normal. If the scientist couldn't figure out a solution, he'd inquire of the X-Man knew any sorcerers who could be trusted. After all, for someone who used to be a member of Earth's Mightiest Heroes, The Avengers, it only made sense that he'd know quite a few people from interesting walks of life. There had to be at least one respectable sorcerer in the mix or maybe a reliable witch who could cast a counter spell or something to change him back to normal. It wasn't that he hated his new form necessarily, but rather that he was concerned about whatever strings might be attached to the gifts. If there was one thing that Giles had drilled into the Scooby gang's head during research sessions is that magic always came with a price tag attached.

He wanted to return his little 'gift' before the time came to pay the bill for it.

He was strolling down the hallway that contained the doors to the female residents of the mansion, kind of hoping that he might catch one of the lovely ladies in their jammies, when a scent drifted by his nose that shoved his usual thoughts aside. It was a scent he'd smelt that night when Laura and he took on those demons. The scent of fear mixed with tears. Going from a casual walk to a speed just below running he headed for the source of the scent with his right hand maintaining a consistent distance to the hilt of his swords. Like it or not it was another impulse that he didn't have much control over: he could not leave his weapons anywhere. He had to have them on his person at all times and anytime he tried to leave them in his temporary room or in his backpack, he froze at ten meters. As a result, he almost always had them tucked beneath the gold and blue sash that he'd found wrapped around his waist after his transformation. It didn't exactly go well with the jeans and T-shirt combo he usually wore but it was better then wearing the full Mandarin get up and looking like he belonged in some Japanese cartoon show.

It didn't take him long to trace the scent back to its source and when he arrived he saw Laura on her knees in the middle of the hallway acting like there was someone in front of her when there wasn't. Based on the look on her face, whatever she was seeing was pretty traumatic and he wondered what the hell was going on. Looking around and trying to use his newly heightened senses to pick up on a possible clue, it didn't take him long to pick up a very familiar scent. Narrowing his eyes at such a foul move, he approached the young Ms. Claws and placed a hand on her shoulder both to comfort her as well as get her attention. It worked well since, almost immediately, she looked up at him with sadness in her eyes as well as quite a bit of guilt from what he could both see as well as smell. With his presence announced it was time for this… this bullying to come to an end.

"I know you're there, Ms. Frost; stop messing with Laura's head and come out from wherever you're hiding. NOW." He said in an icy tone that he usually reserved for those he wanted to pummel but knew he couldn't without it backfiring.

He could tell almost immediately when the mental mind game was shut down and the sound of approaching booted feet reached his ears a moment later. Then, as his senses had informed him, the White Queen Emma Frost came confidently striding around the corner with a mildly put-out look on her face as though she was annoyed her little scheme had been exposed so soon.

"Why are you doing this?" Laura asked as she got to her feet, an angry look on her face that was somewhat spoiled by the tears still trickling down her cheeks.

_So this might not be the first time Ms. Frost's been slamming Laura._ He thought as his anger increased a notch as well as the icy look he conveyed with his eyes.

"You know exactly why I'm doing this," Emma said crossing her arms in a look of resolve. "You're a weapon, a cold-blooded killing machine who knows nothing but death and murder. You're a threat to every life within this school but all that is about to change because, one way or another, you're leaving."

"If she goes, **I** go Ms. Frost." He said with a little bit of heat entering into his icy tone of voice, "I thought I might be able to get some help here but, if you're a shining example of the kind of people that run this place, then I'm going to start looking someplace else."

This made the older blonde woman pause for a moment and he thought perhaps he had something but then she resumed her 'end of discussion' walk down the hallway as though nothing had been said. Obviously the woman was used to getting her own way and didn't let anything get in her way once she set her mind to something. He'd have to stay extra close to Laura then just to make sure that there were no more efforts to drive the clone/daughter/sister of Logan out of the school.

"Well it looks like neither of us is going to be getting any sort of sleep anytime soon, so howsabout you and I raid the fridge for something to eat?" he asked her with his patent pending lopsided smile.

She nodded and, within a few minutes, the two of them were in the kitchen with him slapping together two sandwiches for them as well as two tall glasses of milk. He didn't know if roast beef sandwiches were something that Laura liked considering she rarely talked or voice an opinion of her own that wasn't combat related but he figured it was a good place to start. Five minutes later, though, he could tell she had something on her mind and, judging from the random looks she was directing his way, he apparently had something to do with her train of thought.

"What is it?" he asked, deciding that beating around the bush wouldn't accomplish anything.

"You told Ms. Frost that you'd leave with me if they succeeded in driving me from the school," Laura replied, looking at him a bit before tilting her head slightly in curiosity. "Why?"

"Weapons can't cry. They can't feel emotions at all. You do feel. You are not a weapon." He said simply, pointing out the mistakes of Ms. Frost as well as his own position, "You're a young woman who's had a shitty life up until recently and has decided she wants to become something better. I figure that's something worth helping you out with. Besides, I find you interesting."

It was truth for the most part. With her usually silent nature, he had no idea what was going on inside her head half the time and that gave him plenty of reasons to try and figure her out. Add to that the different sides to herself she occasionally showed and he was definitely interested in getting to know her better.

To this she only nodded and resumed eating her meal.

_**X-Mansion, Kitchen, Twenty Minutes Later, Laura's P.O.V**_

Xander found her interesting.

She supposed it was only logical since, based on interactions with him, she had been the first mutant he'd ever spent an extended period of time with. However his behavior was more… informal towards her than she would have expected for someone gathering detailed intelligence on a potential ally. True, her instructors at The Facility had taught her various behavioral patterns, from emotional cripple to 'perky' girl scout, that were to be used to get close to the target. Was that what Xander was doing now? …No, she didn't think so. While she had noticed some military training in his movements and actions, they did not seem geared towards espionage or undercover work. That left her with an annoying mystery that she could not quite figure out and felt that it must be because her lack of data on what it meant to be 'a normal teenage girl'. It was one of the flaws that she had found in herself once she had made it to the home of her mother's sister and, since then, she had done what she could to learn the correct mannerisms and behavioral patterns. Still, it was slow going and even with extensive observation of girls her own age, she never quite got the same reaction they did when she mimicked their actions. It was confounding how, even with perfect mimicry of accepted behavior, she still came off to them as the 'odd girl' or the 'freak'. Xander, on the other hand, didn't mind it the few times she had made a mistake in his presence and corrected her without any sneering or undue ridicule. He genuinely seemed interested in helping her to become a normal teenage girl.

That fascinated her.

She also took the time she spent together to gather information on his new form and what it was capable of just in case she required the data in the future. She did not currently perceive that she was in danger of him turning on her but, just the same, there were other ways to make someone attack a 'friend' or 'loved one'. The Facility had numerous ways of modifying behavior, from scientific ways to people with unique abilities, and she had no way of knowing which, if any, of them would be effective on Alexander LaVelle Harris. Looking up at him as he finished putting away the milk, she was about to ask him a question when he suddenly turned his head in the direction of the front entrance of the building. She followed him two seconds later when an all too familiar scent reached her nose and this caused her to mark her 'friend's' sense of smell as being more acute than even her own. Blood. There was blood in the air. Before she could even inquire with Xander about what he thought the source might be, he was already running to find the source. This was consistent with the 'white knight complex' that he often ridiculed himself for having. When she asked him to elaborate on what a 'white knight complex' was, he described it as a strong inner compulsion to perform noble and honorable acts regardless of the potential danger to oneself. If someone was indeed hurt badly enough to produce this strong a scent of blood then it would certainly be enough to trigger Xander's complex. Following him, they soon found themselves at the front door of the building just as Ms. Frost was opening it and it was then that they discovered the cause of the odor in the air.

Jay Guthrie lay on the doorstep to the mansion, covered in his own blood and, according to her eyesight and analyses, his wings had been removed.

Xander was frozen in shock at the scene but Scott Summers, codename Cyclops, was the first to recover from the sight, quickly bending down and scooping up the injured mutant before heading for the elevator. Ms. Frost took only a single look at both of them before following her current love interest and soon it was only the two of them standing not fifteen feet from the front door. Looking to Harris' face, she could tell that he was in danger of going into shock due to the bloody scene he'd just been exposed to. It was a bit odd that he should be so affected considering his earlier statements of living in a town where deaths were common and a part of a group that often investigated those incidents. However she surmised that the reason for his shock had to do with the fact that he had never seen a human being so heavily injured but rather had found the bodies long after death had occurred. Whatever the case was, she was concerned that his exposure to this might cause him to do something reckless if he was allowed to slip into shock entirely. She needed to 'snap him out of it' somehow and then get him to focus on something else until his mind was more able to process the experience he had just been through. Searching through her mind, she tried to conceive of a method that would be both effective and appropriate considering the current relationship she had with the transformed human. In the end, while her mind had come up with three possibilities, she disregarded the first two since there was a possibility of their meaning being misinterpreted and chose the third.

_**SLAP!**_

"Calm yourself, Xander. I can only imagine how disturbing this scene must have been for you but you must move past it," she said, trying to sound compassionate but only managing to evade sounding coldhearted. "Instead of dwelling on the event itself, force your mind to devise an acceptable way of handling it in a constructive manner. How do you intend to handle this situation?"

For a time he simply stood there, looking at her, but then a look of contemplation crossed his features before determination was the dominant expression on his face. Without a word to her he turned and began to walk briskly for the elevator that had only minutes ago taken Ms. Frost and Mr. Summers. Not knowing what he had planned, she followed him and waited for him to explain to her what precisely he intended to do. However he never spoke, never uttered a word, but rather seemed to be completely focused on whatever method of 'handling' Jay Guthrie's current state his mind had come up with. When the doors opened to the level that the infirmary was on, he exited the elevator car and swiftly proceeded down the hallway to the door to the infirmary. Upon entering the room, she could see that Dr. McCoy was finishing applying fresh bandages to Jay Guthrie's body as well as connecting the formerly winged mutant to various medical monitoring machines. Xander was halfway to the bed upon which the injured mutant lay before Ms. Frost and Mr. Summers took notice of their arrival.

"Alexander? What are you… **two** doing here?" Ms. Frost asked, barely managing to conceal her dislike for the female clone of Wolverine.

"Handling the situation." Was all Xander said in reply before he grasped the hilt of one of his swords and withdrew the blade from the sheath it resided in.

She could tell that everyone was tense and it would have been a reasonable assumption that all three X-Men were readying themselves to use their powers on Harris should he attempt to do something… questionable.

They should have stopped him immediately.

With speed that reduced the blade to a barely perceivable blur, Xander executed a slash with the katana that released a wave of blue energy at Jay Guthrie and Dr. McCoy. With a flash of light that forced her to close her eyes, she knew that something had happened when she heard the sounds of tearing bandages as well as physical movement. When the light had finally faded to the point where all present could see, they beheld a sight that had all wondering what had happened. She was no exception to this as she could not construct a feasible reason why Jay Guthrie was suddenly completely healed and in possession of crimson wings exactly the same as the ones he used to possess. To her knowledge, while there were mutants with the ability to heal rapidly, no description that she had ever heard matched what she had just seen seconds ago. Turning to Xander, she hoped that he would be forthcoming with an explanation but instead he looked as though he had just arrived in the room. Looking into his eyes, she could see no grasp of what he had just done and a growing fear that likely came from not knowing if he truly was in control of his own body.

"Alexander… how? How did you do that?" Ms. Frost asked, clearly astonished at the feat of healing that the temporary tenant at the school had just performed.

"I… I don't know," he replied, looking down at the unsheathed katana in his hand. "I just entered the room, saw Jay laying there a-and… I wanted to help somehow. T-then it was like the sword was calling to me, compelling me to use it and I… I did!"

This troubled her and, judging from the looks on the faces of Ms. Frost and Mr. Summers, she wasn't the only one not thinking positively about this new development. In the past five minutes, Alexander LaVelle Harris had come under the influence of a weapon in his possession and, while the results were, for the most part, positive, his lack of control was not a good thing. Was it like her and the trigger scent that had been burned into her mind by The Facility? Had he truly been incapable of stopping himself? Unknown. At the very least he lacked sufficient control for the headmaster and headmistress of the Institute to be able to do anything but be concerned. If she were in their position, she would immediately isolate Xander from the rest of the student body and place him under observation until the full extent of this phenomena had been determined. While he had not done anything harmful so far, that did not mean he wouldn't in the future. With such a potential risk to the teenagers under their charge, it was the only sound decision to make.

"Alexander. Go upstairs and get your costume. Put it on," Ms. Frost said in a firm tone that made it clear it was a step shy of an order. "In twenty minutes a 'battle royal' of sorts is going to be held comprised of all of the students living here still in possession of their mutant abilities. You're going to be a part of that."

"WHAT! You can't be serious… I… look what I just did!" Xander exclaimed, clearly seeing any course of action that put him in a volatile situation as being insanity.

She would be hard pressed to disagree with him.

"Yes, I did, and, because of that action, Jay now has his wings back." Frost said increasing the uncompromising tone in her voice, "I know you're afraid of what else your new state might surprise you with but if this bloody scene with Jay proves anything it's that someone has declared their intentions to kill everyone here at the Institute. They will be coming, sooner or later, and if you're intending to stay here past tomorrow you are going to be in the middle of some difficult situations whether you like it or not. Do you wish to find out what lies within you now, under controlled conditions, or later when lives may depend on your choices and actions?"

It was a smart move on Ms. Frost's part. She might not have known all there was to know about Xander but she knew that he placed greater value on the lives of others than his own. Confronted with the fact that the student body was in danger and that lives would be affected by his choices, there was only one course of action that the former Sunnydale resident would choose.

"I'll… I'll be back in ten ready to go." Xander stated, steeling himself for what was to come and burying his insecurities as deeply as he could.

With that he turned around and left the infirmary and for a moment she wondered what she should do. It was made clear to her before that Ms. Frost didn't approve of her being admitted as a student at the Institute by Weapon X and Mr. Summers. It was doubtful that she would let a being she considered 'a weapon' to participate in the mass battle to occur in twenty minutes.

"What are you waiting around for, Laura?" Asked Mr. Summers with the authority of an instructor. "Get upstairs and get your fighting clothes on. You're participating in this as well."

Looking for a moment at Ms. Frost, someone who was obviously not in favor of the headmaster's actions, before turning and heading for the elevator to the upper floors, Laura left. Her status at the Institute was still tentative but, until she was officially told that she was no longer welcome there by the majority, she would abide by the orders of the mansion's administrators. Reaching the elevators just as the doors began to close, she slipped in just in time to join Xander as he rode the elevator car to ground level. Looking up at him, she watched as he gave her what was most likely intended to be an encouraging smile and, while she did not feel much in return, she felt more… optimistic about her chances in the fight to come knowing that he would be at her side.

Xander was her friend, after all.

_**X-Mansion, Sub-Level 4, Danger Room, Twenty-five minutes later, Xander's P.O.V **_

I can do this!

It had become something of a mantra for him since he'd entered the Danger Room dressed in the very same outfit he'd worn in the closing minutes of the confrontation with the demon mobsters. Having little else to call it, he decided to name it all his 'Sesshomaru Suit', even though he'd just call it his uniform if anyone else asked. It still looked a bit odd on him when he looked at himself in the mirror but, at the same time, he didn't dislike it enough to throw it off and wear something else. He just hoped that it turned out to be more durable than it looked or it was going to get seriously messed up here and probably him along with it. While Ms. Frost was only now moving to the head of the group to explain everything, he had a pretty good idea what was about to happen. One of the students under her charge had just stumbled back to the mansion in a bloody mess and, since Jay Guthrie hadn't been on suicide watch the past few weeks (that he knew of at least), it meant one thing: the mutant haters of the world had decided to finish off what remained of the mutant population on their own rather than waiting for some other worldwide occurrence to do it for them. That being the case and given the globe trotting adventures that the X-Men went on, the blonde no doubt intended to draft some of the students to form a team that would defend the mansion in case of attack. While he personally thought that the students should be given more say in the matter, he wasn't the one in charge of the place.

_I really hope I can get through this without seriously hurting someone._ He thought as Frost found her speech spot.

"Today everything changes." Emma said with a tone of an ominous nature, "No more squads. No more field days."

"What?" Exclaimed one of the Stepford Cuckoos.

"You can't be serious." Stated another incredulously at what he presumed she saw in her mentor's head.

"We won't do it." Spoke the final one before all three left the room in a seriously bad mood.

He imagined that if the rest of the students knew the full scope of what the woman in white was planning, they'd have similar reactions and they'd be within their rights to think like that. Most of the mutant teenagers here didn't come to become X-Men or to fight the good fight. Most of them came to get a grip on their powers and to get an education that they weren't likely to get anywhere else due to their status as mutants. To be told that they were about to undergo a draft battle to form a fighting team that'd be putting their lives on the line frequently would not go over well.

"You came here to learn to use your powers and find your place in the world. Now we will see what you've learned and where your place is," Frost said with the skill of an experience orator. "There are two possibilities— on the battlefield or on the sidelines. You will decide which. The exercise is simple. Every man for himself. Last students standing will train to be X-Men… the rest do not. Wallflower, Blindfold, Nezhno, Ernst. You are excused."

"What? Because of my arm? I can still— " Wallflower, a blonde girl whose ability it was to generate and control pheromones, protested strongly.

"Leave now." Was all Frost said in return.

Reluctantly the singled out students did leave the room but he could tell that the command did not sit well with Wallflower's teammates. Still he supposed that it was the safest course of action. While it was true that one disabled arm did not an invalid make, it would be a weak spot that the other students might take advantage of and Ms. Frost probably wanted a level battlefield all around.

"Wait, Miss Frost. What about Kevin? Did you find him yet?" Mercury asked with concern for the current status of her teammate.

"Jay Guthrie is missing as well," stated Dust, the Muslim girl who could become a being unto sand, as she looked about the room for the teen currently sedated in the infirmary.

"Right now, I suggest you focus on the students around you." Emma replied making it clear that what was going on right now took precedent over everything else.

Looking about him, he could already see the alliances being formed between the various students, most being those who had been on the same squad prior to the announcement. Some were obviously uneasy or perhaps even opposed to the event about to take place but he didn't see anyone else leaving or voicing their complaints to Ms. Frost. It both pleased him and worried him that despite the road they were stepping onto and the danger it held these kids were still willing to walk down it. In a way he felt a certain kinship with them because he too had made a similar choice years back when he'd first stumbled upon Buffy and her calling. He had been given a choice between doing the right thing and hiding from the truth that lived in his hometown of Sunnydale.

He chose to do the right thing.

"Begin," Emma said from her position in the observation booth that was incorporated into the roof of the Danger Room.

Within seconds the battle was joined and he took up a defensive posture close to Laura so he could protect her from assaults from behind. He didn't dare do anything more for fear of somehow going overboard and seriously hurting one of his fellow combatants. He didn't have to wait long for his first opponent to surface because Julian Keller, aka Hellion, was making for Laura's position, completely ignoring everyone else. Deciding it wouldn't be smart to let someone like that prick, whom apparently had the power of telekinesis, judging by the suddenly flying students that had once been in his way, get the first shot in he moved at what he hoped was only a quarter of his top speed intercept the fool and get a KO blow in immediately. He was forced to act immediately when the arrogant ass took notice of his approach and, with a brief surge of speed, he found himself less than three feet from his chosen adversary. Trying to be as gentle yet potent as possible, he placed his right hand on the man's chest and then using as much strength as he dared he moved to push the teen off his feet and to the ground. What happened in the eyes of those observing the fight, though, was one second Xander Harris suddenly became a blur of movement the next he reappeared in front of Julian, slamming the other teen to the ground enough to bounce slightly. It was lucky for Hellion that he had had the foresight in those few seconds before impact to use his telekinesis to cushion the impact as much as possible. If he had not, he likely would have been knocked out cold and wake up unable to move due to the mass of bruising up and down his back. As it was, the blow had been sufficient to knock the wind clear out of him and rattle his brain enough that, for at least a minute, a T.K technique would not be possible.

_That should keep Keller off of Laura's back for the time being. _He thought as he turned to make his way back to Claw Girl's side.

However it was then that he noticed something that was most definitely not of the normal and, considering the student codenamed Onyxx was charging his friend's position, it was very odd. Laura was definitely a 'the-best-defense-is-a-good-offense' sort of fighter so the fact that she wasn't taking the battle to the muscled mutant was a definite sign that something was amiss. It didn't take him long though to figure out what was most likely going on. While some might think that her immobility might have something to do with one of the students on the battlefield, he had a far more likely suspect in mind. Looking up to the control room hanging from the ceiling and with his enhanced sight he could easily see the smug smile on Emma Frost's face.

It was this sight that caused him to feel something other than the anxiety he'd been feeling over participating in this battle royal.

He felt anger.

This anger is what caused him to run to Laura's side, completely ignoring his own concerns about the number and power levels of his new abilities. That was why he didn't even realize that he'd crossed almost the entire length of the room in the time it usually takes someone to blink once. Before anyone knew it, he was right in Onyxx's path and it was then that he decided that he should make it clear to all the other students that they would be making a mistake attacking Laura in her current state. Standing directly in the rock muscle mutant's path, he waited until the last moment before making his statement through a blunt show of force. With a single step he lunged forward and thrust his right palm forward, striking the man in the torso with as much force as he dared to use.

As it turned out, 'as much force as he dared to use' was enough to send the rock mutant flying through the air, knocking over students as he went, before slamming into the wall of the room hard enough to leave a dent.

However, instead of gaping at what he'd done or mumbling apology after apology, he simply stood straight up and glared at the students, all of whom were staring at him in surprise. He made it clear with his eyes that anyone who tried to launch an attack on Laura in her present state would have to get past him first. Hopefully they taught self-preservation in this school and that that would keep some of the more I-wanna-suck-up-to-Miss-Frost students at bay. Looking at the rest of the students, he tried to measure the level of their intent to continue assaulting his and Laura's position. He could tell that most of them already had their mental list of people that they wanted to take down in this battle and, thankfully, the majority of them didn't have the names Xander Harris and Laura Kinney on those lists. As for those that were considering getting on their knees and kissing Frost's ass by attacking him and his friend, they were currently reconsidering that course of action. Once he was certain that the people in the room with him were not going to try anything, he decided he'd send a message to the person who was responsible for making him send the message. Looking up to the observation room, he could see that Frost was a mix of put out that her plan hadn't worked and impressed by his show of power.

_Since you seem to be suffering from a case of blondeness, Frost, I'll put this as bluntly as possible._ He thought at her with enough strength that a telepath like her would definitely hear it, _Keep abusing your authority or your powers like this and I'll make sure that you'll be putting your plastic surgeon's kids through college AND medical school with the bill he gives you. Understand?_

She just looked back at him with a smug smile on her face implying that either she was impressed he had the balls to talk to her like that or she found his threat to be laughable at best.

He'd be sure to change that opinion of him soon enough. If there was one thing he couldn't stand it was arrogant bitches who thought that their beauty or wealth was a license to walk all over everyone. In Emma Frost's case, though, he doubted that she'd be cowed with just a few well placed words and remarks like Cordy or her sheep would be. No, with her he'd have to show her just how little her powers would mean if he decided to come after her with his own abilities. He'd have to show her that he would do whatever was necessary to make sure Laura was treated fairly and without prejudice of any kind. Only then would the woman give up her efforts to get the girl who was his friend kicked out of the Institute and start behaving properly.

One way or another they would reach an understanding with one another.

Even if they both wound up in the infirmary.

_**X-Mansion, Office of Co-Headmaster Emma Frost, Mid-Evening, Emma Frost's P.O.V**_

_While not the outcome I would have preferred, it was definitely an eye opener._ Emma thought as she considered what she would soon say in front of the remaining students, _Alexander is certainly full of surprises. Speed that almost at Quicksilver's level and strength to rival Colossus' power. Impressive._

More impressive, though, was what he had done to Icarus in the infirmary before she decided to hold the battle royal in the Danger Room. She had just received McCoy's report and, by all accounts, the winged Guthrie was in the peak of good health with no sign that he had ever been injured, much less had his wings surgically removed. Hank was at a loss to explain what had happened aside from 'the blinding light from the sword healed him' and that was not sitting well with the blue biochemist. Unless something important came up, she knew that Beast would be staying in his lab, pouring over his instruments, trying to figure it all out. She herself could not deduce what happened either but considering the fact that the young man had two other swords on his hip and she had a feeling that they had special properties of their own. If they were half as potent as the first one had been, then Xander Harris could well be one of the most powerful people currently living at the X-Mansion at the moment. She wanted to believe that his threat earlier was nothing to worry about but, with so little to go on with regards to his abilities and their limits, it might be wise to be more careful with him. While she had not yet given up her ambition to see X-23 leave, she knew anything further on that side of things would have to be done more covertly. While she knew that she possessed superior experience to the boy, she was not willing to get into a confrontation with him until she had a better grasp of his powers.

Mercury, Dust, Hellion, Elixir, Rockslide, Surge and… X-23.

Those were the names of the seven former students that would be trained to be the next generation of X-Men, appropriately named the New X-Men. While she had not intended to name Surge as team leader, she felt it appropriate to punish Julian for his poor performance in the Danger Room. While all of the others managed to defeat at least one of their opponents, Julian had been kept out of the fight almost until the end and would have been eliminated had he not managed to defeat Quill. If he hadn't, she would have had no choice but to rank him among the losers. Since he was among the winners, though, he was on the team but his poor performance against Xander could not be allowed to pass unanswered. With luck this would be incentive enough for Julian to improve his skill with his telekinesis so that down the line she could replace Noriko with him without opposition. While not belittling Surge's skills, such as they were, she didn't believe that the girl had the inner strength to handle the pressures of leadership. The blue haired girl would likely be quick to curse her position and the dream of X-teams, possibly leading to her own personal views affecting both her judgment as well as the team. Better to have someone she knew would not mind the role of leader and had grown to her liking.

Getting to her feet and preparing to head for the auditorium, she found her thoughts drifting back to Xander and how much of a boon he could be if she could convince him to officially sign on to become a member of the New X-Men. He wouldn't be leader, of course, but he could make an acceptable second in command with a little time spent learning tactics and strategy with Scott. Yes, that would make him an excellent second in command and the fact that he could smack some sense into Hellion should the dear boy's ego get the better of him was another bonus. The question became, of course, how to get him to stay. She knew from her scans of his mind that he was only staying here at the mansion until all possibilities for reversing his transformation were exhausted and X-23 was settled in. Whether they cured him or not, if X-23 settled in as he hoped, he would inevitably wish to return to his hometown of Sunnydale to resume his work with the 'Scooby gang' defending the Hellmouth. A noble sentiment but his memories of his friends made her believe that they could handle things quite well without him whereas here he could be a real asset. As for the bonds of friendship he had with them, she could promise to make a private jet available for him during the holidays and birthdays so that he could visit them often. She could also offer the assistance of the X-Men if a true crisis popped up that his friends couldn't handle on their own. Still, even with all that she could offer him in order to get him to stay, it would still be a difficult struggle and, if he did stumble across a way to reverse his condition, she would lose a valuable asset.

_Perhaps what is needed is for me to create a more thorough bond here._ She thought as her mind began to consider a promising scenario.

Alexander Harris was, after all, a teenager and possessed all the benefits as well as weaknesses that that age came with. Even more so it was her opinion that his transformation had given him certain… primal tendencies that could be used to her advantage. At his age, the allure of an attractive woman and the promise of a potentially **fulfilling** relationship might just be strong enough to keep him there when combined with her earlier points. The question then became whom among the young women at the Institute would best suit her needs and be an anchor keeping the Harris boy here at the mansion. Laurie, perhaps? No. There was still the possibility of a relationship between her and Elixir. Better to let that take its course since Joshua was a valuable member of the New X-Men and would need an anchor as well to keep him stable as an asset. Surge? No. She was still attracted to Prodigy despite his depowered state and, while she could force a quick separation by having him leave with the other depowered students, it would create unnecessary friction between her and Noriko. Dust was a possibility but the girl's chosen religion would prove to be a hindrance since her beliefs would act as a potent obstacle towards the intimate contact that Xander would likely seek. He was an American teenager, after all, and tactile affection was very much a part of romance in the United States. There was that whole 'want what you cannot have' allure that might work but it was too unstable for her to risk anything on it. Mercury? A definite possibility since she appeared to be without a significant other at the moment and her mutant powers would lessen Xander's concern about accidently hurting her. Hisako? Perhaps. While a bit younger than Xander, she was not so young that anyone would find a relationship between the two as odd or unacceptable. Also the power and durability that her psionic armor would make them a formidable combination in battle was another angle to consider aside from possible romance.

_All these possibilities for Alexander and so little time to lay down the groundwork._ She thought as her mind continued to debate the various candidates.

Finally reaching the auditorium entrance, she realized that she would have to table the idea for the time being since it would likely take her full concentration to survive her speech. There were many who would be against her decision to remove the remaining depowered mutants from the Institute but it was for their own good. It was no secret that as one of the few large concentrations of mutants on Earth, the school was a prime target for the various mutant hate groups that existed. Men like William Stryker were already fanning the flames of hate and urging the prejudiced and bigoted to finish what the Scarlet Witch had started on M-Day. While the X-Men and O.N.E forces would do their best to defend the mutants living at the Institute, it was a strong possibility that the students would be forced to fend for themselves at certain points during the conflict. Those with no powers would be virtually helpless against such an assault and thus it was wiser to remove them from the combat zone entirely. The young teenagers would still rebel against this idea, no doubt swearing that they'd protect those who'd lost their powers, but this would only put those students at greater risk since they would be forced to protect two or more rather than just one. No, sending the depowered students away would be the better course of action and, since they'd be doing it covertly, the odds of their movements being leaked to anti-mutant forces would be minimal.

Pushing the door open, she immediately spotted Alexander standing off in a corner with eyes focused on the stage. She was, for a moment, surprised to find him here since he was neither a mutant nor a student but then deduced that the teenager was likely there to make sure she didn't try anything with X-23. A wasted effort on his part, though. Scott had made it quite clear after the Danger Room session that he wouldn't tolerate any more blatant attempts to expel Wolverine's female clone from the Institute. She had attempted to persuade him once more the dangers of allowing the biological weapon to remain at the Institute but he would not listen. He continued to point out numerous 'problem children' that the X-men had taken in over the years and how they had evolved into valued members of the team. She countered by pointing out that the majority of those troublemakers had been raised to be humans and had lived as humans before coming to the X-mansion. X-23 had been bred from birth to be a weapon and knew nothing but ways to kill whatever target was put before her. The artificial being was only just now beginning to make steps towards accepted human behavior but even then what she was learning was being treated as nothing more than mission data. The **filth** at the Facility had done their jobs well in creating their little weapon and, even **if** she chose to try and help the girl become more human, it was questionable how much she could truly change. In the end, though, she could not budge him an inch and both of them had stormed off in opposite directions to vent their anger.

_I love the man but sometimes he can be painfully incapable of clamping down on his idealism._ She thought with a slight frown before making her way to the stage, _Even after his harsh reality call by fusing with Apocalypse he still wants to believe that there is the possibility of redemption in some people._

He was both infuriating and lovely at the same time.

GOD she loved him!

_**Morlock Tunnels Exit, Just Outside of Salem Center, A Few Minutes Before Midnight**_

_**Xander's P.O.V**_

_I do __**NOT**__ like this._ He thought as he divided his attention between the group of students saying their farewells and the surrounding forest.

His logical mind could understand that with the mansion being the target it was due to the high concentration of mutants there it was a logical move to remove those that couldn't defend themselves like the depowered mutants. However the Zeppo side of himself remembered all too well what it felt like to have other people make decisions for him 'for his own good' and try to push him out of the group. He suspected that the only reason why these students weren't kicking up more of a fuss was because they didn't know how to fight back against the almighty Emma Frost, especially when the only person capable of countering her was pretty much her squeeze toy. A small voice inside of him pointed out that that was what love did to people but he still wished that Scott Summers would question the bitch a little more often. Realizing what he'd just thought, he immediately began to look for the all too sneaky vengeance demons who looked for careless statements just like so they could work their mojo. Fortunately, though, it looked like there were none around because otherwise he'd be smacking himself so hard for forgetting one of the most basic rules from Sunnydale. 'Be careful what you say, 'cause you don't know **what** might be listening' wasn't a sign of paranoia like most people would think it was. Resuming his efforts to help with security while Laura and the others said goodbye to the friends that were shipping out, he hoped that Murphy would take pity on these kids and leave them alone.

It only took a few minutes for all the students to be loaded onto the bus and, once they were, everyone began to make their way back to the entrance/exit to the Morlock tunnels. Only he, Laura, Mercury, Hellion, Elixir, Dust and Rockslide were still out but he wasn't planning on heading into those reeking tunnels any sooner than he had to. While he had been dealing with an enhanced sense of smell for a while now, those sewer tunnels were a new level of funk for him to deal with and he didn't like it.

_Still it'd be best to get it over with quickly,_ he thought as he proceeded towards the opening.

He got all of ten feet before he heard it.

A paff sound of displaced air and the sound of a burning fire getting closer and closer.

Turning his head towards the sound, his eyes widened as he spotted the anti-tank missile heading right for the bus and was about halfway there already. He turned away from the entrance/exit of the Morlock tunnels and began to run towards the bus with the intent of intercepting the missile somehow and save the passengers of the bus that were only now comprehending the danger they were in. Pouring all of his power, all of his intent, into his legs, he hoped that he'd had all the speed he need. All he managed to do, though, was leap into the air in an effort to get a clear line of sight right before the rocket impacted on the side of the bus and detonated. He was less than three feet from the bus when it exploded and, as such, was knocked backwards by the force of the blast but, by some random bit of luck, he managed to remain on his feet. This was something he was only peripherally aware of because right then the thing that was at the front of his mind, dominating his thoughts was the fact that the teenagers in the bus were most likely dead or dying. He asked himself how could this happen and who could have done this but he already had an inkling of an answer in his mind.

Mutant haters.

It couldn't be super villains because they usually were a little more upfront about things and liked to make a spectacle of themselves in front of everyone. Whoever did this had done it from a long distance away and used the forest as cover so that no one would pick them up before they attacked. That meant normal humans with military grade weaponry and that pretty much meant mutant haters like The Friends of Humanity or some other group with similar ideals and ambitions. People like that had just fired off a missile that had obliterated the bus in a ball of flame and had likely killed or fatally wounded those inside. He didn't really know those on the bus all that well since he'd only been here for a little while but, looking at them, even with their mutations, he saw his friends back home. In the young women he saw Buffy, Willow and Cordelia. In the young men he could see bits of himself and Oz. All of them at their core were just teenagers as old as him if not younger and despite their powers they had the same dreams as anyone else their age on the planet Earth. Someone didn't care about that, though. Someone saw them only as nameless, faceless, abominations that had to be eliminated before some paranoid fear became cold hard reality. Someone who cared nothing about the fact that those in the bus weren't technically mutants anymore and had more in common with baseline humans than anyone else at the mansion.

They didn't care. THEY DIDN'T CARE ONE **BIT**!

With that thought in his mind his emotions faded away to be replaced with a quiet chill that dominated his mindscape almost completely to the elimination of almost all else. Most would think he had gone into shock, they'd believe this terrible situation had overwhelmed him, but they would have been wrong. It wasn't shock that was flowing through his body but rather an icy rage that would make even the most determined of demons second guess doing anything to get that emotion directed at him. The only thing other than that icy rage was the contempt and disgust at the people responsible for this. Only cowards could be responsible for such a dishonorable massacre. If they were truly strong, truly brave, they would have attacked this location head on no matter what might have been in their way. Attacking from a distance, attacking from a hidden location… only spineless filth behaved like that.

**Unforgivable**.

With this in mind he decided to channel the rage into what he wanted to do next. "Mercury! Get a hold of yourself." He said commandingly as he looked at her with cold eyes, "You and Dust use your powers to smother the flames as quickly as possible. Deal with them before they get to the fuel tank."

"Who died and made you leader?" Noriko snapped with a mix of anger and surprise.

"No one, unless you waste more time questioning my orders." He said without a flinch at her words or a decrease in his resolve, "You work with Rockslide, Laura and Hellion to get both the dead and the dying out of that wreckage so Elixir can go to work on those he can save. DO IT!"

To their credit the others only hesitated a few seconds before they went to work following his orders, establishing a level of order to a situation that had become chaotic. While they did this he prepared himself for any follow up attacks that might be incoming. While he doubted those cowards would expose themselves intentionally, there was always the chance that they'd become overconfident due to their successful first strike. If they did come, though, X-men present or not, he'd kill them all. Without hesitation he would end their lives. This filth had attacked a group of defenseless teenagers who were already experiencing the pain of losing not only their powers but also their home and the friends they'd made there. Unforgivable!

It took about fifteen minutes for everyone that had been on the bus to be carried clear but that only made him angrier as he noticed that far too many of them were dead. While none of them, by the grace of God, had any limbs blown off, there was so much blood soaked into their clothes that it was supremely difficult to determine who needed healing the most. Nevertheless he watched Elixir do his best to use his mutant power to heal those he could get his hands on but, at best, he might save half of them. This was **unacceptable** to him. Even if only one of these teenagers died he would not accept it!

As if in response to these feelings, one of the swords tucked beneath his golden sash pulsed with power and an echoing pulse went off in his mind. Looking down at it, he realized that the weapon was the same one he'd been compelled to use to restore Jay's wings and mutant himself to full health. It was then that he realized he had the ability at his side that he could very well save everyone with the power that this katana possessed. Reaching with his right hand, he took hold of the weapon's hilt and pulled the blade smooth movement that made it look like he'd done it a million times before. Once at the ready he closed his eyes and began to pour all of his desires, all of his intentions, into the sword so that the power unleashed would be as high as he could make it. He didn't notice the blade seem to get heavier or a blue light begin to come from it that lit up the area like a powerful electric lamp. All of his focus was directed toward what he wanted to do and his refusal to accept the current state of things. It was only when he opened his eyes, locked his gaze on his targets and swung his sword in a wide arc that the focused energy was released washing the light over the victims laid out on the ground before him. It only took a few seconds for the light to vanish and leave only the few remaining flickers or fire from the wreckage of the obliterated bus to light up the area.

The results of his actions spoke for themselves.

However it was not all good from a certain points of view.

While it was true that his slash had pulled off a miracle by not only healing those that had moments ago dying but also restoring those to life that had once been dead, his action had also had a shocking side effect. Those teenagers that had been depowered now found themselves once more among the ranks of mutants in possession of their powers. As they rose from their prone positions on the ground, he could see them receiving shock after shock that they were suddenly all better both medically as well as their powers, but to him he'd deal with any blowback from that later. Right now, with the immediate concern of students dealt with, he had only one goal in mind and that was to take down the team of mutant haters responsible by whatever means necessary. Turning away from the crowd, he sheathed the katana he'd used to heal or revive the former Institute residents and began moving towards where he believed the perpetrators had launched their attack from. While the trail of exhaust from the missile had disappeared for the most part, there was still visible enough to give him an idea of where to look. Add to that what he could recall from memory and he had no doubt that finding those assholes wouldn't be a problem for him in the least. Stepping forward, he barely registered the arrival of the O.N.E sentinel as it set down on ground with its boot thrusters and lights on full blast illuminating the area. He didn't care about that, though. Let the tin man and the pilot inside handle clean up here. He had bigger fish to fry.

"HALT! YOU ARE OUTSIDE OF YOUR AUTHORISED ZONE." The pilot of the sentinel said over the loudspeaker, "STAY WHERE YOU ARE UNTIL O.N.E AGENTS ARRIVE."

"No," was all he said before he resumed striding towards his next target.

"STOP!" The pilot repeated as he moved the machine with impressive speed to block his path, "THAT IS AN ORDER."

"Move." He commanded, looking up to the head of the machine where he suspected the pilot's cockpit resided.

"I CANNOT DO THAT. LOOK, I UNDERSTAND HOW YOU FEEL, BUT THIS IS OFFICIAL O.N.E BUSINESS NOW." Said the pilot with genuine compassion in his voice, "DO NOT ENDANGER YOURSELF BY GOING AFTER THEM ALONE."

"Fine," he said as he reached for another of the swords tied to his waist.

With only intentions guiding his movements rather than true skill, he used the katana with the severely worn out hilt to deliver two vertical slashes to the sentinel. So fast were the movements that he doubted that anyone saw more than blurs of movement accompanied by flashes of golden energy but the end result of his movements was something that no one could miss. With explosions around the areas that were cut, both arms of the metal man fell to the ground with a thunderous impact while smaller secondary explosions popped up from the jagged holes in the sides of the machine. With the obstruction removed, he thrust the blade back into its sheath, the grinding of metal against metal the only sign that it was returning to its original shape. Once the blade was fully back in its sheath, he took off running for the location where his prey would be and hoped that his little object lesson would be enough to discourage pursuit by the other sentinels. He also hoped that none of the X-Men followed him either. He knew that as heroes they would object to what he was going to do to those butchers. Heroes didn't approve of causing pain for pain's sake or torturing someone for information concerning the future actions of their organization. Heroes didn't do that sort of thing or condone it.

He had never once considered himself a hero.

A hero was a role model, a shining beacon of hope, someone that could inspire others to better themselves and the world around them while they were at it. That wasn't him. He was simply a man who'd chosen to fight the battle against the darkness and was doing his best to push it back as far as he possibly could. While he would not allow himself to become as bad as those he fought against, he also wouldn't allow superhero rules prevent him from doing what must be done. This attack could not be left unanswered. Those responsible would be punished accordingly. He knew that that was what the justice system was there for, handling situations like this, but he didn't believe it could be trusted to truly deliver what it promised on these bastards. While on the surface they seemed to follow the letter of the law and treat everyone equally, he knew that within the justice system there had to existed those who felt like treating mutants differently. They could not be obvious about it, they would come up with pathetic reasons for the behavior, but they would still not muster the same amount of effort to see justice done for mutants as they would baseline humans. They might even 'lose' a vital piece of evidence or raise the burden of proof the prosecution would need to meet in order to convict a mutant hater of his or her crime. He knew this to be the case in his gut and that was enough to justify what he was about to do. Regardless of the fact that the victims from the bus were alive and once again in possession of their mutant powers, the fact that someone was willing to blow up a bus full of defenseless teenagers was enough to warrant what he would soon do.

He would make what was about to happen his statement to all those that would condone killing people just for being different.

You try to kill good people in front of him and it **will** cost you.

_**The Forest North of the Bus Wreckage, Twenty Minutes Later, Mercury's P.O.V**_

_Hold on, Xander! We're coming!_ Mercury aka Cessily Kincaid as she used her liquid metal form to move across the forest floor faster than any pair of legs could.

It had only been twenty minutes since the guy with the white hair vanished into the forest at a speed she could scarcely perceive but, once she had been sure that the sentinel wouldn't stop her, she had gone after him. That teenager who dressed like some kind of Japanese feudal prince had shown her one shocking thing after another this night but taking on an unknown number of enemies was a stupid move. Even if he could move like lightning, even if he had swords that held great power, there was no telling what he would find at the spot where the rocket was launched. He could wind up hip deep in God knew how many enemies with no back up and only his limited experience to see him through. While it was true that she had never really been in a life or death battle, had not been in anything more strenuous than that battle royal of Frost's, even she was sure that diving headlong into an unknown situation was stupid. That was why she was going to help him, to add her strength to his in the hopes of at the very least buying time for the big guns to arrive, and she wasn't the only one who had chosen to aid the young swordsman. To her left Laura was managing to keep within ten feet of her and had her claws out, ready to put them to use the second they arrived at their destination. To her right was Dust, who like her was using her mutant powers to propel herself at a speed much greater than normal legs could match. Together the three of them would do what they could to make sure that this night stayed a no death zone no matter how many people wanted it to be otherwise.

Five minutes later they arrived at the spot where the rocket had most likely been launched from and what they found brought all three to a screeching halt. Scattered around what looked like the remains of a humvee were men and women dressed in black and white robes of some kind but they were not in the best of shape to say the least. There were tears in their clothes, some looked to be done by a sword while others were done with claws given that some of the prone figures had four parallel slashes across their chests. Of all the humans that were in the clearing, only one of them was still in half decent shape and Xander was stalking that one person like a wolf about to rip its prey's throat out.

"GET AWAY FROM ME! DEMON!" Screamed the sole conscious human in the clearing as he scrambled backwards on his back to get away from the being advancing towards him.

"No," was all Xander said as he continued to step casually towards his final opponent.

The tone of his voice chilled her to the bone and, considering her body was made out of liquid metal, it was no easy feat. It was true that she had not spent much time with the guy, preferring to spend time with her friends, since she believed she'd have time later, but from the snippets she'd heard from others it sounded like Xander Harris was an okay guy. Caring, humorous and laid back were some of the words others often used to describe him. However what she saw before her now was the coldest person she'd ever seen and that was an opinion she'd formed only after hearing him speak. He wasn't an emotional mess like she'd probably be if she were in his shoes and neither did he seem to be enjoying what he was doing to these people. He was just doing what he had set out to do with no emotions getting in his way whatsoever.

_Whatever! I can't let this go any further._ She thought as she moved to position herself between the bleeding man on the ground and Xander.

"Stop it Xander! They're beaten! It's over." She said, doing her best not to flinch at the cold eyes she was looking into or look away one little bit.

"Move aside, Mercury. This **filth** needs to learn that there are consequences to his actions," Xander said, stopping for a moment from advancing on his target.

"And what about the consequences to what you've done here?" She asked, using his own words to bring this… this slaughter to an end, "Do you honestly think that those O.N.E jerks are just going to let you walk away from this? Yes, they're here to protect the school and the people who live there but that doesn't mean they're going to turn a blind eye to this. You've killed over a dozen people! You need to stop, Xander. NOW!"

"They're not dead," Xander said without even the slightest change from the glacial tone of voice he'd been using so far.

"What?"

"He's right. None of them are dead." Laura stated from her position over one of the downed humans with two fingers pressed to the man's throat to feel for a pulse, "They're incapacitated and will not be a threat to anyone for a time but they are alive."

Looking over to Sooraya, she was relieved to see her teammate on the Hellions nod once to her, confirming that the woman she was kneeling by was also alive. It felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders, knowing that while still in a bit of trouble, the young man before her probably wouldn't get any jail time out of this mess. In fact, thanks to the lives of the people he saved a half an hour ago, she seriously doubted that any of those pompous O.N.E agents were going to lay a hand on him. After all, what kind of message would they be sending to slap cuffs or an inhibitor collar on someone who just brought the dead back to life, healed the wounded and restored the powers of so many?

Hearing a rustling sound behind her, she turned to see the sole conscious member of the team of humans who'd attacked the bus run off into the forest. She made a move to follow and apprehend the man but a hand came down on her shoulder stopping her. Looking back she was surprised to see that it had been Xander who had stopped her since this move clashed with the 'kick ass and chew bubblegum' attitude he'd been sporting. Raising an eyebrow in inquiry she hoped he got the message and explained himself.

"It was never my intention to kill him. He will now be a messenger to his comrades." Xander said, a little feeling beginning to thaw the icy exterior before her. "He will tell them that their weapons will not work as intended so long as I am around. He will tell them that even with numbers like this, attacking the Institute would be foolish. This will make them think twice and at least buy everyone some time."

Looking at all the people lying bloody and unconscious in the clearing, she had to admit that if the sole escapee had been witness to his friends being cut down like they were nothing then it would definitely send a strong message to the people behind all this. Whether this would force the bigots to rethink their plans or if it would simply provoke them into attacking all the harder to wipe out the 'mutie' scum, she didn't know. All she knew was that for now everyone was still alive and those that had attacked the school bus had been defeated.

That was enough for her.

Hearing the sounds of people approaching, she turned and could see the X-Man Cannonball, Jay's older brother Sam Guthrie, coming towards them. A Sentinel was approaching as well, along with Warren Worthington and the rest of the X-Men capable of making it to the clearing the quickest were probably not far behind. Dust, Laura, Xander and she probably had a minute or two before the first arrivals touched down. That fact reminded her of one fact that was increasing her anxiety by quite a bit: she'd left everything she'd been wearing below the waist back at the site of the destroyed bus. At the time she hadn't thought all that much about it, all that had mattered was getting to Xander before he got his cute butt blown off, but now that all the excitement was over with she had something of a modesty problem on her hands. She was about to make for the trees and then perhaps head back to the site of the rocket explosion when a strip of gold and blue cloth fluttered to the ground at her feet. Recognizing it as belonging to Xander, she turned to him and saw him uncomfortably looking towards her then away while a distinct blush was on his face.

"It's not exactly a knee length skirt but it should be enough until you can get some of your own clothes." He said, barely managing to avoid letting a stuttering effect enter his words.

Touched both by his attempt to help her and by his behavior, she bent down to pick up the sash. It was wider than it looked, having been folded twice before being used as a belt, and with a little adjustment from her made for quite the acceptable mini-skirt. It didn't quite come to her knees but was definitely long enough that she didn't have to worry about accidently mooning someone if she bent over wearing it.

"Are y'all alright?" Cannonball asked as he touched down in the clearing but anything else he might have said was taken away when he took in the various bloodied forms on the ground.

That was pretty much the same reaction everyone had when they took in the mess that was all that remained of Xander's one man battle against the people responsible for the attack on the bus. No one even had to look around for very long to determine who was responsible since there was still some blood dripping from the fingertips of Xander's hands. This caused the Sentinel that had just touched down to shine a spotlight specifically on the white haired teen and raise both palm blasters to point at the feudal prince. Deciding to nip this problem in the bud before the trooper inside of the giant mecha decided to get a little trigger happy, she walked over and stood directly in the guy's line of fire. While somewhat surprised, she was definitely pleased when she watched both Dust and Laura follow her lead in discouraging the O.N.E soldier from opening fire. While Xander might not be a mutant and therefore not under the jurisdiction of O.N.E, the rest of them were making firing through them to get to Xander a bad move indeed.

"They're all alive if that's what you're wondering," she stated looking up to where the eyes were on the former mutant hunter/killer machines. "You might want to get some medics and ambulances up here."

She might not have been able to see the pilot's face but she didn't need to in order to tell that the guy or gal was annoyed at being told what to do. Personally, though, she didn't care since, as far as she was concerned, no one was going to harm the young man who had pulled off three miracles this night and she wasn't alone in this position. Neither Dust nor Laura looked like they were going to make it easy for the Sentinel pilot if he or she decided to get a little trigger happy. It was no secret that, despite the official promise that the O.N.E agents and Sentinels were there only to observe and protect the mansion residents, no one really trusted them. The X-Men and others who'd been through the mansion over the years had a long history with Sentinels. Hell, anyone who was a mutant was more than familiar with the term since it pretty much equaled government killing machine in their minds. As for the human sized agents walking around the lawn, no one really believed that those soldiers would do their best to protect the mutant residents of the Institute. They'd put enough effort into it to avoid getting in trouble but, if it came down to saving their own skins or that of a students, everyone knew which way the flatscans would go. Therefore they had to look out for each other and do what they could to make the world a little more bearable to live in.

_Still, if Xander's planning on sticking around for longer than a couple weeks, I might just find the world __**almost**__ fair. _She thought, completely unaware of the small smile that appeared on her face.


	3. Fanatics and Firefights

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material contained herein. They each belong to their respective creators and associated companies. I make no money off of this whatsoever. I write for my own fun and for any enjoyment fanfic readers might get from my work.

_**Two Days Later, Xavier Institute, Dormitory, Men's Wing, Xander's P.O.V**_

_I wonder how many different ways you can say 'that sucked' because, after spending all that time with those O.N.E. assholes, I'm running a little dry on material._ He thought as he lay back on his bed after the three hours of sleep he managed to get after the 'debriefing' he'd undergone at the hands of Dr. Cooper and Colonel Reyes.

It'd been a little under twenty minutes after the tin giants and the X-Men arrived at the clearing where the pricks responsible for the attack on the bus were lying on the ground unconscious that he'd been shoved into a stereotypical interrogation room to be questioned. They'd asked him questions about everything from where he was from to how he'd managed to defeat over ten people so quickly along with everything in between. At first he was willing to be as honest as possible with answering their questions since he was a little shaken up himself about how he'd acted after the rocket had blown up in his face. However, after the tenth retelling of his life story, all crucial bits about the gang back home being edited out, of course, he'd started to lose his cool since it was the parts he'd edited out that they seemed most interested in hearing about. They'd even stated clearly to his face that they knew he was holding back on some of his answers but he'd be damned if he gave the government something to pique their interest in the Scoobies. It had only been when fatigue and frustration had hit his interrogators sooner early that morning that they had finally decided to call it a night but, of course, they gave him the 'this is not over' line before leaving. It was practically a pre-requisite among law enforcement types to get the last word in an interrogation and make it seem like they were in control.

Idiots.

Still, just because he'd managed to escape them didn't mean that he'd have an easy day ahead of him. Ever since he'd stepped outside of the room the morning after the attack, he'd gotten a mixed batch of people some of which would praise him for what he did last night while others would get on his case because of the methods he'd used. Then, of course, there'd be the people he'd healed or restored to life with one of his mystery swords. While about quarter of them were glad to have their powers back, since it meant that they could stay at the Institute with their friends, the rest would be cursing his name since he'd taken away their chance to be normal. He couldn't really fault them for that because, if he'd suddenly found himself his normal human self again only to be shoved into this bizarre 'Sesshomaru' form, he'd be miffed at the person responsible too. Still, he was sure they'd get over it in time but whether he'd still be around when they did was something he wasn't as sure of as he had been twenty-four hours ago. He'd moved himself up from the 'just another resident' category to 'someone to keep our eye on' and, if there was one thing he'd learned working with Buffy, it was that getting noticed brought with it a truckload of problems.

One such problem was the fact that he'd done something no one else on the planet could do: he'd restored the powers of mutants who'd been depowered by M-Day. Ever since the event had happened, McCoy and various other like-minded people had been burning the midnight oil trying to figure out how to reverse the process. Regardless of their hard work, though, they had not yet even begun to understand **how** the Scarlet Witch had managed to do it, much less how to undo it. If word got out that he could do it with a swing of a sword, it'd be chaos worldwide. Depowered mutants would stampede towards him to get their powers back while anti-mutant factions would do everything short of firing a nuke at him to obliterate any chance of restoring the mutant race to its former glory. Fortunately Mr. Summers realized this and had said that he'd do everything he could to keep a lid on what happened until such time as they were all prepared to deal with the repercussions.

As for Ms. Frost, she was more motivated than ever to try and get him to accept a position on her 'New X-Men' team after seeing what he could do. He knew he'd be the center of Institute gossip for the next two weeks at the bare minimum. He also knew that it meant that he'd have to deal with Dust, aka Sooraya Qadir, for a long while as well. While she had been covert about it, he'd caught her at least five times looking in his direction before he'd been carted off by the O.N.E agents. At the time he'd been a little confused by this but, after a little thought, the reasons fell into place with all the subtlety of a truckload of anvils.

_Put someone capable of healing large numbers of people and bringing the dead back to life in front of a seriously religious person and you've got awkwardness aplenty._ He thought as he tried to figure out how to stop her staring.

The problem with that course of action was that he'd have to do it in such a way that wouldn't offend her or anything. It'd require some delicate phrasing and some sensitivity to how she was feeling at the moment, neither of which being his strong suit, of course. Still he'd give it his best shot and hope that somehow he'd make his way through it without making matters worse. As for Frost, he still didn't like the stuck up bitch but he couldn't deny that there was a need for him in his present form here. While he had always been sympathetic towards the mutant condition, he'd never really understood what it was truly like until he left Sunnydale. Ever before Buffy had shown up to enlighten him about the existence of the demonic and supernatural, the only times he'd ever even heard the word mutant had been on the news or when it came up in class for discussion. Even then it'd basically devolved into a propaganda sound bite session with most of the students taking up a sheep-like mentality by going along with what the majority of America thought. He and Willow had pretty much been the only ones to play devil's advocate and try to present the entire situation from the mutants' side of things but that pretty much resulted in them being more outcast than ever. It was only when he got out of the little town called Sunnydale that he'd been given a better idea of what the real deal was and he didn't like it one bit. People looked at mutants and reacted to them the way he pretty much reacted to vampires and demons: they're evil and can't be trusted. It didn't matter whether or not a mutant had done something wrong or had a criminal record because, as far as some people were concerned, being a mutant was a crime in and of itself. Then you had people like the Friends of Humanity and the Church of Humanity out there, along with other anti-mutant hate groups, fanning the flames of hatred everywhere they went. It was getting to the point where just being a mutant was an everyday fight for survival and the Institute was both a blessing as well as a curse. It provided a safe haven for mutants but it also made for one helluva tempting target for those looking to 'strike a blow for normal humans'.

_Alexander? Could you come down to the Danger Room?_ Frost thought to him telepathically sounding quite polite, _I'm running a training session for the New X-Men and I think they could benefit from your assistance._

At first he just wanted to tell her to leave him alone but his current train of thought had him second guessing that choice. While he wasn't quite ready to slap on the spandex and become a full fledged member of the New X-Men, he knew that he could be of some help to them. Plus he was starting to get a little case of cabin fever just laying here in his room doing nothing. Initially he'd done it so that he wouldn't have to deal with people who'd heard about his 'miracles' but now he was thinking he'd have to take a different approach to things. Besides that, he knew that many of the members of the New X-Men team were still feeling the effects of the attack last night. It didn't matter that no one had died, the fact that they'd had the first true example of what they'd have to deal with shoved in their face was enough that the situation alone had shaken them mentally. Being put through a particularly difficult training session in the Danger Room would only serve to point out their flaws and remind them all the more about how powerless they'd felt last night. If he went down there, he could possibly be able to lighten their mood a bit and so, with some reluctance, he decided he'd oblige Ms. Frost this once.

_I'll be right down._ He thought back at her as he got off his bed and began to put on what he'd come to call his work clothes.

Cessily still had his sash belt but fortunately it wasn't important enough to worry about since it wasn't like that gold cloth was the only thing keeping his pants up or anything. The night of the attack he'd tossed it to her more out of reflex than anything else and because his troublesome White Knight complex had prodded him into it. While he'd known that Mercury was essentially a mass of liquid metal and that the only reason she took female form was because that it what her mutation activating, his mind had still thought 'girl without pants on'. Hopefully he'd get it back from her since the outfit he was half into at the moment didn't feel quite right without it. Then again, the few times he'd bumped into the redhead in the halls between interrogation sessions with O.N.E but, from how she'd acted, it was like they'd been friends for months. He wasn't quite sure how to take that so he decided to simply interpret it as an offer of friendship and would take her up on it when he could since she did look **good** in spandex and he had a thing for redheads.

Once dressed, he hesitated for a moment about whether or not to bring his swords but decided to take them with him. Despite his efforts to learn to leave them behind, he still felt a strong connection to them and never got further than the door before he'd experience a **need** to take them along with him wherever he was going. He was just glad that that didn't include the shower or something because it'd be a whole new type of weird if he wound up doing that. Once he'd secured the blades to his side with an improvised belt, he made his way casually down to the Danger Room where the New X-Men were being put through their paces. He noticed the stares that some of the students were giving him, some of them 'school girl crush' stares from the teenage ladies, but he kept his mind on his destination despite his inner teenage crowing at the idea of becoming a heart throb. Once he was in the sub-level the Danger Room was in, he noticed some of the other students waiting outside the training room's door waiting for it to become available. Trying to remember their names, he recognized one as Pixie since she'd been all 'I wanna be your friend' one day he'd been in the cafeteria. The others, though, he could only recall seeing in the hallways but no names popped into his head when he tried to identify them, whether it was a code name or their human name.

Walking up to the console to the left of the Danger Room entrance, he hit the button that'd put him in contact with whoever was in the control room and said, "I'm here, Ms. Frost. Should I wait or head right on in?"

_Go right in, Alexander. I stopped their training session when you got out of the elevator,_ Frost thought at him with some amusement in her voice. _A certain redhead also has something she'd like to return to you. It's been washed._

He was fairly sure that the redhead in question was Mercury and that the thing she had to return to him was his sash, but he was wary of how to take that final statement. Given the way Frost dressed most of the time and the amusement that was in her voice, he was fairly certain he didn't want to know what she meant but his teenage mind came up with a few possibilities anyways. One involved what guys sometimes did after pulling a panty raid but he immediately clamped down on that thought since he knew that once he got going it'd never end. Walking into the room, he found the members of the New X-Men waiting for him, along with one of the X-Men, Colossus, he believed, with all of them fully ready to kick ass.

"Here you go, Xander," Cessily said, walking over and passing him his golden sash that was already folded and ready for use. "Thanks for letting me borrow it for a while."

"No problem," he said, accepting it and then switching his makeshift belt for the real thing.

It felt better now that his outfit was truly complete but there was still the training session to do so he guessed it was time to get the ball rolling.

"So what's the objective, Ms. Frost?" he asked looking up to where the blonde was overseeing everything.

"This is a simple exercise." Emma stated over the speaker system, "All you have to do is knock Colossus down."

"Sounds easy enough," he said looking over the metal-skinned X-man from top to bottom.

"Yeah? Wait until you get knocked on your ass for the tenth time, 'cause then you'll see it's not easy at all," Hellion said, clearly trying to make it sound not quite as embarrassing that **his** team was getting schooled.

"I've learned from the others how you took charge after the bus exploded, Xander. For the remainder of the exercise you will be team leader," Frost dictated, much to the surprise of some of the New X-Men. "As with the other attempts by the New X-Men, you have ten minutes to accomplish this task. Utilize the team as you see fit. Now… BEGIN!"

It took him a moment to accept the fact that he was suddenly the one calling the shots but he recovered quickly and took quick stock of his foe. Judging from the strongman outfit and the bulging muscles, it was obvious that Colossus was a powerhouse. A direct assault would be useless against him and that meant that this would have to be a multi-part plan executed in stages.

"Surge, attack him with your electricity, focusing on the upper torso." He said, hoping she didn't wait too long to follow his order.

Thankfully she was prompt in executing his command and, while the metal man that was the target of the assault was able to prevent a direct hit, the electrical attack did connect. Deciding that waiting for the tin man to get completely clear of the attack would be a bad thing, he moved onto the next part of his plan.

"Mercury and Hellion, move in to restrain his movements. Cessily, you bind the legs while Hellion focuses on the arms. GO!"

Pulling a Mr. Fantastic, Ms. Metal stretched across the room and immediately used her elongated limbs to tie up the X-Man's legs while Keller focused his telekinesis on restricting arm movement. He could tell within the first few seconds that they wouldn't be able to hold their prey for long as he could already see signs of strain showing on Julian's face. They needed to wrap up this conflict before Colossus could power his way out of his bindings and thus ruin the rest of his plan.

"Surge, stop your attack and wait in reserve. Laura, I want you to move in and attack targets of opportunity with your claws. Focus on pain rather than damage," he ordered as he could see his time for giving out orders rapidly decreasing. "Dust, I want you to use your dust form to make his breathing more difficult. Seeing, too. Do what you think is best."

With a nod both mutant women moved to carry out their orders and, judging from the sweat pouring down the face of Hellion as well as the sounds of strain coming from Mercury, the timing couldn't be better. With all the grace of an acrobat but with the precision of a trained fighter, he watched Laura zig-zag around Colossus, using both claws as well as bare fists to inflict pain. She was apparently being quite effective since he noticed that the metal man was no longer quite so focused on freeing himself from his restrained state. Dust's involvement had the desired effect as well since there were quite a few coughs coming from the X-Man.

Now was the time though to deliver the coup de grace though and end this exercise.

"Rockslide, it's time to put an end to this." He said turning to the rock man to his right, "Follow me in and follow my lead."

"You got it!" Santo said as they both charged Colossus' position.

As they closed in, he could tell that things were definitely coming to a close because, even with Dust and Laura providing distractions to keep the X-Man from freeing himself, the experienced superhero was gradually working his way free. Putting on an extra burst of speed he slammed his fist into the taller man's gut, successfully expelling what air the man had managed to retain in his lungs and bending the man partially over.

"Rockslide, he's all yours!"

With that a smile of excitement came over the face of the rocky hero-in-training before he picked up the pace and wrapped his thick right arm around Colossus' head. With a bit more theatrics than he would have liked, the powerhouse of the New X-Men perform the finisher of a pro-wrestler perfectly, thus proving that he was indeed a pro-wrestling fan. Thus, with a thunderous boom, the powerhouse of the X-Men was brought to the ground with the others having withdrawn from close proximity before impact. With the objective completed, all that was left was for Frost to either set a new one or let it end. He watched as she entered the Danger Room and, judging from the smile on her face, she was apparently quite satisfied with the overall performance of the team.

"An excellent strategy, Alexander; bind, disorient and then defeat," Miss Frost said as she stopped at the center of the group. "This is what I meant before, you must act as a single group. If you act as individuals you only make yourself each easier to defeat. You should keep this fight in mind, Surge, for future situations. Keep in mind the abilities of your team and use them effectively to achieve whatever objective you might have."

Noriko, of course, took this with a bit of bitterness mixed in with reluctant acceptance of the fact that he had done a better job commanding the New X-Men then she had. He knew from past experience how it felt to be shown up by someone else who was, at best, a casual acquaintance and, at worst, a stranger. The Japanese American was probably feeling nervous enough as it was being named the leader of the team but to have someone best her his first time in command had probably just made it worse. Seeing this, he tried to think of some way to make her feel better without coming off as patronizing or something.

"Beginner's luck. I'm sure if this was a real fight Colossus would have torn my plans to shreds before it even got halfway," he said, trying to downplay the victory he'd just managed to achieve. "Plus a real commander wouldn't even have to verbalize his commands. They'd used hand signals or something to issue orders covertly."

"True. Time and experience can also be used to become a better leader." Ms. Frost said, possibly catching onto what he was trying to do, "For the time being you are dismissed. Think on this training session and how you can perform better the next time."

With that the co-headmistress of the Institute left the room, leaving him and the other exercise participants to think on what had happened and what could happen in the future.

_**Xavier Institute, X-Mansion, The Living Room, Late Evening, Xander's P.O.V**_

_Well __**this**__ has been a fun day! _Xander thought as he watched the big screen TV that was nearby.

It turned out that, thanks to the excellent job he did leading the New X-men against Colossus, Frost was even more driven than she'd been before to 'persuade' him to join the New X-Men team. She even implied that some of the female members might be 'interested' in working alongside him and that perhaps he could at least tutor Surge in the areas of strategy and tactics. If he didn't know better, he might think that she was trying to set him up on a date or something. Not that he didn't think Nori, Cessily, Sooraya and Laura were beautiful or anything, but when someone started playing matchmaker with his life, he was immediately reminded of his past history with women. While his relationship with Cordy had gone on longer than any of the others, there were a few consistent qualities that every last one of his dating prospects had: they were beautiful, they were strong and all of them tended to go homicidal on his idiotic ass sooner or later. Therefore, with a perfectly functional survival instinct, he knew it was best that he not take the blonde headmistress up on her offer. Not that he didn't have a passing interest in joining the New X-Men (what comic book geek wouldn't want to become part of a superhero team), but his responsibilities to the gang back home had to come first. Only when he was certain that they would be okay without him, only when he could be sure that he could visit them anytime he wanted, would he consider moving onto something else.

At the moment though he was simply trying to fully enjoy the benefits that came with staying at a place like the Institute, hence the big screen TV and the bowl of chips in his lap. He winced a bit when he tossed back a particularly heavily flavored chip, as it reminded him once again that his new form brought with it superhuman baggage. One such piece of baggage was an enhanced sense of taste that made anything that hit the taste buds ten times more potent than they would on a normal human tongue. Sour food tasted ten times more sour and sweet food tasted ten times sweeter. Needless to say it made eating anything interesting since nothing tasted quite like it used to and he was often forced to use anything particularly potent sparingly unless he wanted to overload his sense of taste. The other senses came with equally bothersome side-effects but he was slowly learning to tune them out or minimize how they affected him.

It was about then though that one such sense, his sense of hearing, picked up the edges of something that caught his attention enough to make him look away from the TV. Looking out a nearby window, he noticed Elixir and Laurie Collins, aka Wallflower, standing in the middle of the grounds near the fountain arguing about something. The window and the distance prevented him from making out the words but it was obvious that it was something they both felt passionate about based on their furious gestures. While he hadn't paid it too much mind up until then he knew that Josh had been seriously affected by the attack on the bus. Even though all of the passengers were alive, in good health and once again in possession of their mutant powers, Josh still was upset over his own inability to make a difference. The golden boy's powers were entirely centered on the ability to heal people or at least manipulate biology to produce a wide variety of effects the full extent of which he didn't have a clue about. To be faced with so many people he knew in pain or dying, he must have felt unbelievable pressure that night and even days later it was still simmering within. It was like someone still in medical school suddenly being asked to run a M.A.S.H unit with only two medically knowledgeable people as subordinates. Under the weight of such a situation, it wasn't any wonder that he didn't come away from it entirely unscathed. Still, he didn't think that yelling with a sort-of-but-not-quite girlfriend was a good way of handling things.

He was about to look back at the TV when something happened that he'd remember for days.

One minute it looked like the argument was reaching its peak and the next a gush of blood erupted from Laurie's head before she dropped to the ground. It took less than a second for his military memories to tell him that she had just been hit by a sniper round. Seeing as how the O.N.E Sentinels had intensified their efforts to ensure that a repeat of the bus incident wouldn't happen, the person must have fired their shot from quite a distance away, meaning either the perpetrator had some sort of technological edge or he was **damn** good with a rifle. Whatever the situation, it didn't matter since he now had only one priority: use his power to revive and restore Wallflower. Leaping out of his chair, he threw the window open and jumped out, making for the blonde's location with all of his speed. As such he only took two seconds to reach her and, without an ounce of hesitation, he drew the sword that he had used both on Jay Guthrie as well as the bus students to undo the injustice before him. With one swift slash accompanied by the blue light the blade generated, the wounds on her body, even her withered right hand, vanished as though they had never happened in the first place. However the real achievement came when her eyes opened up and she took her first breath after having a bullet put through her skull. However there was one side effect he hadn't counted on: her waking up in a pool of her own blood with the memories of what happened right up to when the bullet hit fresh in her mind.

"AAAAHHHHHH!"

Instantly he moved to support her but the moment he was in place to do so pain blossomed from the upper left of his back with force that nearly knocked him off his feet. Thanks to the beatings he received from his parents and the pain that came from fighting demons in Sunnydale, though, he was able to not only remain standing but also begin zipping around the courtyard. Apparently the sniper was determined to achieve its objective and that goal was apparently to kill Laurie Collins without fail. Thankfully, no matter how sharp the sniper, it was impossible to hit a target one could not keep up with physically. Still, remaining outside was dangerous without knowing everything the enemy could do he could wind up facing more than just bullets from a sniper rifle. Thus, as he saw various X-Men exit the mansion to deal with the threat, he went back into the building the same way he left it, turning the corners inside at random until there was no clear line of sight for someone outside. All of it happened in the space of thirty seconds thanks to his superior speed and, once he was certain that the location was safe, he gently placed Laurie down on a nearby sofa. He was in the process of standing back up when he realized that the arms she'd somehow wrapped around his neck during his movements after reviving her were not disengaging. He thought for a moment that Laurie might be doing this unconsciously but when he tried to gently remove her arms from around his neck, he felt her actively increase the strength of her hold on him convincing him that her actions were voluntary.

"P-please! I…I don't…I don't want to be alone right now!" Laurie said, looking in his eyes with both fear as well as vulnerability in her own, "I…I need to know I'm safe! I need to know that I'm **alive!** PLEASE!"

Looking at her, he could see that she was quickly approaching the point where she would break down in hysterics and was now frantically trying to grab any source of stability she could find. Suddenly finding yourself dead, being brought back to life in a pool of your own blood and then being evading sniper fire couldn't have been the easiest thing for someone to endure. While he was feeling more than a little awkward with her arms wrapped around him like this, what with her relationship with Elixir, the look in her eyes made forcing himself free unthinkable. He could never be so cruel so as to deny someone comfort when they were in a state like this. Pushing aside what awkwardness he was feeling, he sent out a mental request to Frost to keep Joshua away from this area and then sat down on the floor, since it was more comfortable then standing bent over. Hopefully though, once she fell asleep or calmed down, he'd be able to safely extract himself from this situation without causing it to blow up in his face.

It was then that Laurie slid off the couch and into his lap, resting her head on his shoulder in the process.

Apparently Wallflower equated comfort to tactile contact. The more of her body that was in contact with his boy the greater the feeling of safety and comfort she experienced.

This was **SO** not of the good!

_**Westchester, New York, The Church of The Reverend William Stryker, Thirty Minutes Later**_

_**William Stryker's P.O.V**_

"Is that so? This is disappointing, Matthew." William Stryker said as he thought on the report he'd just received from Brother Riseman. "The plan was to eliminate the one called Wallflower and then kill the Muslim so that the vision could finally come to pass. This complicates matters."

"I'm sorry, Father. Shall I wait for another opportunity?" Brother Riseman asked over the cell phone, showing genuine regret.

He thought on this and considered the potential for success if he permitted Matthew to remain. He was safe enough from detection with his implants and other assorted gear. He was also two point four three miles away from the lair of Satan's children, leaving the enemy with a great deal of ground to cover if they started searching for him. It was not completely unfeasible that another chance to eliminate the pheromone manipulating she-devil might occur should she come out into the open. However, upon further reflection, he decided that delaying the entire operation for the sake of single cleansing would be unwise. Satan's resources were many and the blood traitors would not remain ignorant of his connection to the assaults forever. No, it would be wiser to move on and employ the secondary plan for dealing with the Collins girl. Unlike some mindless fanatics in the fight against the Devil's children, he was wise enough to plan for every possible situation, for every possible outcome, so that in the end victory was inevitable for God's children. That was the only reason why he had gone with a sniper assault, since it was the quickest method and because it would expose his forces to the least amount of risk. He was not so callous about the lives of his followers that he would needlessly throw them away like so much refuse. The secondary method that had been developed had just as much chance at succeeding but had flaws that could be turned against them if they were discovered by the enemy.

Nevertheless, it would be a risk he and his Purifiers would have to take now.

"No. Return to the staging area and prepare for the next phase in the plan," he said with significant authority in his voice. "I will join you shortly, once the Guthrie boy and the Muslim have been dealt with."

"As you wish, Father." Riseman said before severing the connection.

Snapping the cell phone closed, he looked out the window on the second floor of the church and grinned at the sight of the Guthrie boy approaching. If the demon had been born a human, he would have complemented the boy on his piety and his devotion to God but instead all he felt was anger at the way Lucifer's child profaned the house of God every time it entered the building. Were it not for the sacred script he'd acquired from the Almighty's gift, he would have had the insult to true angels everywhere eliminated immediately. He had faith in his Lord's divine wisdom though and so had followed the plan as lain out by the supreme ruler of all creation and would trust in his God. Looking at the boy as he reached the front steps, he noticed two abnormal lumps on the teenage demon spawn's back. At first he was concerned that somehow the mutant's wings had been restored but dismissed this as impossible. His subordinates had been thorough in gathering information on all of the Hell spawn residing in their infernal Institute so as to be prepared when the day of reckoning came. Therefore it took him only a brief moment to conclude that, while there were those capable of restoring the mutant's wings to him, the Guthrie boy would never have allowed it. The boy truly believed that by sacrificing his wings the first time that it would be adequate payment for sparing his friends from the coming massacre. Upon learning of the attack on the bus, unsuccessful though it was due to a snow haired mutant swordsman, he would have felt shock as well as confusion before allowing those emotions to bring him here. Such was how it had been planned and so it had come to pass before his eyes.

_The foolish demon spawn most likely did a poor job bandaging his wounds and this is the result._ He thought as he turned to face his highest ranked subordinate.

"It's incredible…" said Jack as he turned away from the window.

"What is?" he asked idly curious about what had caught the man's attention.

"The boy. Most people couldn't have survived the surgery, let alone the days after." Jack replied explaining his earlier statement.

"Never underestimate these creatures, Jack." He said, recalling his last encounter with the one called Shadowcat, "I made that mistake once, but never again. Come, let's collect our guest."

Exiting the room where his Lord's gift rested he made his way down the spiral staircase on the other side of the hallway and then walked to the front doors of the church. Opening one he was not surprised to see the look of incomprehension on the youth's face and so he put on his best 'benevolent priest' face.

"Welcome back, Joshua." He said with his arms spread as though inviting the boy into a hug.

"Reverend… you said that you would help save my friends…but…" Guthrie said obviously mentally wrestling with his inner turmoil.

"It's all right, son." He said turning towards the door of the church with a comforting look on his face, "All will be explained. Come."

With that he turned and entered the church with Jack taking up the rear behind the mutant youth. Step by step he led the unwitting pawn in his plans to the site of the grand unveiling of his plans for the future.

"Wh-where are you taking me?" Jay asked as they reached the top of the stairs.

He remained silent as he walked to the room that was his destination, knowing that the youth's determination to get answers would be sufficient to entice him to follow.

"KILL THE POWER NOW!" He heard one of the technicians in charge of the gift yell with rising concern.

"No. Do nothing. The boy must bear witness," he ordered, refusing to permit one man's diminished faith from ruining his moment of triumph. "Joshua, I told you when we first met that you were a part of the Lord's plan. Now you can see for yourself."

"Oh my god," Guthrie gasped as his sinful eyes fell upon the metallic form of the Almighty's gift.

"I was a soldier—a crusader—one of God's chosen to fight in the war against Satan. But then I strayed. An X-Man caused me to doubt my role in this war. She convinced me to cast myself into limbo, and worse… she convinced me that God was wrong," he said as he cast his mind back to those days oh so long ago. "I had questioned everything I knew to be true and, for my actions, the Lord punished me. I begged him for forgiveness but he answered my prayers with silence. I was lost and I thought I was forsaken

"I believed God had cast me out of his kingdom. But I was wrong," he said as a smile grew on his face as he remembered that one fateful night. "God gave me a second sign. A gift. One greater than I could have ever imagined."

"Nimrod…" Joshua said naming the metallic construct secured to the cross.

"I examined the device for months. Inside it was technology I couldn't begin to understand but it had extensive historical data that I could access," he said, continuing on with his storytelling. "The records from its past would light my way to our future. A future where humanity had won the war against Satan's spawn, where mutant filth was hunted down and destroyed. But even as I watched this perfect vision of the future, I saw that it was changing… that it was somehow being erased. And the longer I studied the device, the more far-reaching these changes became.

"Mutants were growing in number. They even formed their own nation. The sons and daughters of Satan were destroying the future Eden before my very eyes," he said with a bit of defiance in his voice at this sequence of events. "But then I discovered something, an event, a single moment that could set the future back on track… Most called it 'M-Day'. I called it salvation. But it would take more than this one event to save the future. So I began planning, setting events in motion that would take Eden back from your kind.

"I combed through future obituaries and saved lives that were meant to be lost. With each soul saved, I added to God's army. I also learned of the mutants that were preventing Nimrod's future from forming," He said with growing confidence in his words.

"But why? Why are you doing this? Those kids on the bus were human, they weren't mutants, not anymore…" Guthrie protested, no doubt with the intention of pointing out the flaws in his vision.

"Ah, but they were the most dangerous of all. Those 'kids' were the 'humans' that would infiltrate society and create sympathy for mutants, the very individuals that would hand our world over to Satan. But Nimrod had no record of these demons in human skins. That is one of the reasons I needed you, Jay," he said, using the boy's statement to solidify his position.

"No. You said if I gave you my wings, if you returned them to god, that you could save my friends." Guthrie said, continuing to deny the truth that was plain to see.

"Those without souls cannot be saved," he said, summarizing his thoughts that night in one sentence. "I was disappointed to hear that the newest resident of your home had thwarted the attack on the bus but, in the end, he managed to do me quite the favor. By turning those 'humans' back into what they truly were, he eliminated the threat they would have posed if allowed to mingle with true humanity. I think I'll thank him before I kill him."

"This is a robot! A Sentinel! Not God!" Guthrie cried, clearly at the edge of a precipice in terms of what he could deny.

"Yes. The Lord works in mysterious ways," he said, taking the boy's manner as a sign of his inevitable victory. "Come. I have something to show you," he said, walking over to the screens that displayed the information they downloaded from Nimrod. "Behold the vision God granted unto me."

With those words the technicians began to play the video records of his future triumph and the final destruction of the Xavier Institute along with its hell spawned residents, the sentinels standing dead on their feet, completely non-functional after having been disabled by his forces. Various mutants known to the Guthrie boy lay dead on the ground thanks to the weapons wielded by his Purifiers. The video ended with the sudden appearance of the Collins girl and the Muslim with them using their infernal powers to tear apart his forces like they were leaves in the wind. The last image shown was of the mutants codenamed Wallflower and Dust kneeling beside their fallen comrades crying at the injustice of it all. How little they realized that their ending would be much worse than this and that with the knowledge given by Nimrod his victory was unstoppable.

"This is the future," he said with all the finality that truly existed.

"Why are you showing me this?" Guthrie asked with his own tears of pain trickling down his demonic face.

"Because you need to understand the part you have played in the Lord's endgame. God reveals to me those who would stand in my way," he replied, sounding like someone who has been given power absolute. "The girls you call Wallflower and Dust are all that stand in the way of my plans. Once they are dealt with, the future of this world will finally return to the hands of God's chosen children."

"The subject is approaching, Reverend." Said one of his Purifiers approaching him.

"And you, Mister Guthrie... you have delivered one of them to me," he said with a growing smile on his face. "Put it on the main monitor."

It didn't take long for the formerly winged mutant to recognize the young woman garbed in an abaya and niqab crossing the street towards the church.

"Sooraya…**no**…stop, please…whatever you're doing-" Jay Guthrie pleaded, no doubt realizing where this would go.

"Proceed." He said into his walkie talkie before thinking, _Far be it for me to disappoint the lad._

With his single spoken word the Muslim was bombarded with automatic gunfire from two separate locations with silencers on both weapons in order to ensure that the police wouldn't be arriving anytime soon. Not only were key people in the police department on his side but those that weren't loyal to their race were so powerless that they would be easy to sweep away if they became troublesome. While there might be race traitors out there the faithful outnumbered them by scores and thus they would prevail over Satan's children.

"NNNNOOOOOOOO!" Guthrie screamed as he sunk down to his knees under the weight of what he had just helped to occur.

"Show me the vision." He said after taking a moment to enjoy the mutant's suffering.

Watching as the last image of the vision was brought up he waited for the change he knew would soon happen. Like before he knew that the image of the Muslim and Collins girl would fade away to reveal the desired future where all who might prevent his desired future from coming to pass were dead leaving nothing but a true Eden for humanity.

It was taking a bit longer than usual this time though.

"I…I don't understand. They should have disappeared, like all the others." Said Technician Jacob as he rose from his seat.

"Give it a moment." He said not wanting even one of his inner circle to begin feeling doubt about what they were doing.

"But it's always been instantaneous!" protested Technician Jacob who proved unwilling to ignore this anomaly.

"Do not doubt the Lord, Jacob." He said more firmly as a warning against further cowardess.

"But, Reverend, in every case the changes were immediate. I—" Technician Jacob said with a little more professionalism in his voice, "Wait…it's happening. But…I still don't understand why—"

"Jacob, that's enough." He said, putting an end to anything more that might be said, "And now, as you prayed, you will be reunited with young Miss Cabot, who burns in hell for loving a mutant. Oh, and Jay. Her death…was no accident. I led those men to the machines that killed her."

"No…NO! You monster!" Guthrie yelled before something happened that should not have been possible.

With strength and speed in them, crimson feathered wings ripped through the boy's hooded sweater and, before he could end the boy's life, the foul appendages slammed into his side, knocking him to the ground. Wincing in pain as he landed, he swore that he'd make the mutant suffer for hurting him like this but, just as his eyes refocused, the sound of shattering glass reached his ears. Looking up he saw a shattered window on the far side of the room and no Jay Guthrie in sight.

_No!_ He thought leaping to his feet and went to the shattered window quickly as he could.

By the time he reached the window, though, Guthrie was already three buildings away and getting further away by the second. Without any care towards who might hear him, he opened fire with his gun and unloaded the entire clip at the fleeing vermin in an effort to kill him. Fortunately the Lord was with him and as the last bullet left his weapon the demon in the form of an angel fell from the sky into the filth-filled alleyway where he belonged. While it might require some paper persuasion finding its way into the pocket of the local precinct in order to keep his unsilenced gunshots under wraps, it would be worth it. He cursed himself for overlooking the bulges in the demon spawn's back and thinking that they were nothing! However with the boy dead though things could proceed the way they were meant to and with the secondary means of killing the Collins girl, their victory at the Xavier Institute was assured.

"Come Jacob. It's time." He said as he holstered his weapon and prepared himself for the procedure that was about to occur.

_**Xavier Institute, X-Mansion, Men's Dorm Wing, Two Hours Later, Xander's P.O.V**_

_Man am I glad that Laurie doesn't have a new roommate yet!_ He thought as he proceeded back to his dorm room, _It'd have been quite awkward if I'd walked in on some girl in her jammies._

It took a second for his mind to come up with one such scenario and for some reason he found himself almost wishing that that had happened. After all, while there were a few girls here at the Institute that weren't exactly pretty, none of them were butt-end-of-a-bulldog ugly either. While he wasn't going to let Frost bribe him with lovely ladies, that didn't mean he didn't like the female scenery around the mansion. Noriko, Mercury, the Stepford Cuckoos, Pixie and Laurie were all fine examples of fine ladies that he'd be interested in spending time with. Whether or not he'd date one of them was up for debate since he wasn't sure how long he'd stick around the Institute or if he truly felt strong enough about them to change the way he lived for them. Truth be told, there was only one girl currently living at the Institute that he might consider changing himself for and that was one Laura Kinney. While other short-sighted people might see nothing but the biological weapon, the assassin that the Facility made to serve their needs, he saw a young woman who was so messed up she needed help just to know how to act like a normal teenager. He would never even contemplate comparing his own home life to what she must have gone through but he felt enough similarities existed between the two of them that he felt a need to help her out any way he could.

_Still, walking in on an all-girl slumber party wouldn't have been all bad._ He thought as he imagined the possibilities in his head. _Probably get my ass roasted and my brain fried in the end but __**man**__ would it be worth it!_

It was then that he heard three loud booms that sounded like they came from outside of the mansion and he didn't like what that noise implied. Racing to his room, it only took him a minute to get into his fighting clothes and then slide all three swords beneath his golden sash, tying them to his left hip. Leaving his room he decided to do what he usually did in this situation, the stupid thing, and head **towards** the sounds of potential danger or death.

_Attention all students… you are to remain in your rooms until I say otherwise._ Echoed Emma's voice in his mind with the tone of concern in his words, _Failure to obey will result in my eternal ire._

_Yeah right! There's no way I'm sitting out a fight like this._ He thought without any real concern about whether or not she heard him thinking it, _Besides I'm not a student and I wouldn't care all that much if you decided to expel me for this._

He was almost out of the wing of the mansion that was assigned to male students when a scent reached his nose that stopped him in his tracks. Gun oil and gun powder. Both were found in modern firearms and, while as a human he wouldn't have been able to smell it if he looked for it, as a…whatever the hell he was now… it was like a smack in the face for him to smell. Seeing as how he'd never seen anyone in the mansion wielding firearms like that, it could only mean that somehow one of the intruders had made it inside. Turning away from the front of the mansion, he followed his nose towards source of the gun smells he'd detected since protecting the outside of the building would be useless if enough enemies got inside to wipe everyone out. Turning a corner, he saw before him something that made him thank whoever transformed him into whatever he was now because, if he'd merely been human, he wouldn't have been able to smell it coming. Just as two of the students were heading around the corner, he saw some lardass intruder sneaking up on a student who was half out of his room. The intruder had a silenced pistol in hand and was probably looking to be all sneaky and have the student turn to face him just in time to catch a bullet between the eyes. With a slight growl he didn't even realize had come from his own mouth he moved forward and, using one hand to grab the asshole's gun arm while the other grabbed the guy's thick neck, slammed the fool into the nearest wall.

He might have over done it a bit though. After all the multiple large cracking noises he heard coming from the man's body could only mean that several bones had been broken.

Important bones.

Releasing his hold, he wasn't at all surprised when the man collapsed on the ground, either dead or unconscious from the pain. He didn't really care which so long as the bastard wouldn't be able to hurt anyone else. Even if the guy somehow managed to regain consciousness, the odds of him being able to become a threat would be minimal. So long as any passing students were careful, the odds of them being hurt or killed by him would be minimal. Hearing the sounds of gunfire getting closer, some coming from **inside** the mansion, he decided that now wasn't the time to be doing too much thinking. People were fighting. People were getting hurt. People might be **dying** for all he knew! Now was the time for action and to make these assholes regret having ignored his warning after the attack on the bus. Charging off down the hall, he let his senses direct him to the closest areas of conflict where the intruders were likely fighting.

He encountered many intruders along the way but didn't pay them any more attention than was necessary to dispatch them efficiently and with one blow. On another day, at another time, he might have been upset that he was so coldly cutting down human beings without any hesitation or remorse. However, as things stood now, he had no time to feel anything that might hinder the swift termination of the invasion that was currently happening all over the estate. So it was with cold efficiency that he broke bones, sliced up skin and showed the ningen that they were way out of their league in attacking this place.

He'd worry about the blood dripping from his fingertips later.

For what must have been five minutes he went wherever the sounds of conflict were coming from and ended the conflict as quickly as possible. He knew that the students would probably have more than a few nightmares starring him given how he took down some of the invaders but again he would deal with that problem later. The first order of business was to stop the invasion and then he could deal with the clean up later. He'd just turned a corner when he spotted Surge blitzing three of the invaders, catching them off guard and knocking them off their feet, but one of them was able to get off a shot that was heading right for Noriko's back. Without even thinking about it he used all his speed to get between the blue haired girl and the incoming projectile and, after putting both arms in front of his body, braced himself for the impact. What he felt though was distinctly less than he'd been expecting, more akin to getting hit with a high-speed fastball from a professional baseball pitcher, and while it did hurt, the most damage it'd do was give him a nasty bruise. Lowering his arms, he looked briefly to the ground and noticed that the bullet was partially flattened as though it had hit something considerably harder than itself. Whether that was because it hit his fighting clothes or his own transformed skin he wasn't sure but it was nice to know that he was at least somewhat bulletproof.

_Still… best to not take chances._ He thought as he looked directly at the three invaders letting the chilly fury manifested within him lately fill his eyes.

"You pieces of trash get one chance: leave this place and turn yourselves into police," he said with the chill in his voice surprising even him. "It's the only chance you have to survive this night. Choose."

Predictably the fools chose to reply with their weapons as they raised the rifles and handguns up to 'kill the demon spawn' or some such nonsense. With their choices made, he was forced to once again make an example of these fools in the hopes that what comrades they had would find them and think twice about continuing such a pointless battle. Dashing forward, time seemed to slow around him but he knew that the truth was that he was simply moving much faster than anyone else in the area. Nevertheless the guns being brought to bear on him looked as though they were a part of some sort of frame-by-frame stop motion animation project. Movements that would no doubt have normally taken only three or four seconds now to his eyes felt like it would take them three or four times longer to complete. That was assuming, of course, that he let them complete their movements in the first place.

Not happening.

A slash of his clawed fingertips, going from the bottom right to the upper left, sliced through both their weapons as well as their uniforms. The cuts weren't deep enough to cut through bone or their internal organs but it would definitely be enough to both draw blood as well as tear up the muscles on their front torsos. Thus, with both weapons destroyed and their bodies rendered incapable of serious movement, they were no longer a significant threat. Even if their arms were more or less in one piece, the likelihood that they would be able to aim competently was somewhere between slim and none. Flicking his hand sharply in order to get rid of what blood was on them, he turned to see how Frost, Hellion and Surge were going since their lives were of significant importance to him.

"Are you all okay?" He asked them with some warmth fading into the chill that still dominated his voice.

"Fine, but did you have to be so… bloody dealing with them?" Surge asked, clearly not a big fan of doing anything harsher than breaking a few bones to beat a foe.

"They came here to kill us all. They saw us as demons to be killed and felt nothing about slaying the students here, regardless of their threat potential," he replied, not showing one bit of regret about the tactics he used to deal with the invaders. "I don't like people who want to kill innocent people because of their own bigotry. They should consider themselves lucky I didn't employ the 'eye for an eye' approach, otherwise they'd be dead right now."

"Whatever the case, we must move quickly to help others who have yet to receive Alexander's timely aide," Frost said, getting to her feet with one hand pressed over the wound to her left shoulder.

"They won't have to wait long for it." He said before he turned and ran off in search of more people in need of his help.

From there it was a montage of fights, some with cases of him being able to identify the students he was saving, either by their real names or their codenames, while others were just people he felt could be put in the friend/innocent/noncombatant category. The only problem was that there seemed to be so many of these murdering intruders that he never seemed to be able to move fast enough. For every two or three fights he stopped there seemed to be always one that he arrived to late to do anything more than make sure these assholes didn't get the chance to kill anyone else. If it wasn't for that sword strapped to his side, he'd have been dealing with a rising amount of grief right now. As it was, each scene of carnage and death only motivated him all the more to put an end to this carnage as soon as possible.

_No one's going to die on my watch,_ he thought as he thrust kicked an intruder out the nearest window and to the ground below.

_**X-Mansion, Just Inside the Front Door, Twenty Minutes Later, William Stryker's P.O.V**_

"Reverend, we're encountering heavy resistance from the 198…" came the voice of one of his subordinates over the communications headset.

"They are not the primary target. Keep them away from the mansion as long as possible." He spoke into the microphone before adjusting the frequency, "Someone get me a visual on Mary, she's gone radio silent."

"She's either in combat or dead." Brother Riseman said.

"Have faith, Matthew. Our victory is assured by God." He said hoping to stem any pessimism before it could take hold of the man, "She has Frost… we'll find the healer and eliminate the rest of the seven while my Purifiers deal with the children in their rooms."

It was a good plan, one that was both efficient and without flaw, so he supposed he should have expected Satan to make an attempt to derail things somehow.

"Reverend! We had a visual on the mutant Dust. I repeat, Dust is alive," came a transmission from another of his subordinates.

"No… no, that isn't possible. She's dead. The vision confirmed it. God himself foretold…" he said, not wanting to believe that a crack had formed in his grand plan.

"She sees me—oh, God she's—" the subordinate said through the communications headset sounding increasingly afraid, "AAAARRHGGH!"

This was… unexpected to say the least and he was now forced to decide how to proceed with this newest wrinkle in the plan. They were all wearing modified body armor that would automatically trigger the release of a compound that would bond itself with the Collins girl's pheromones. Once bonded, they could easily be ignited, sending a trail of fire back to the mutant she-devil, killing her easily. However, even with the 'upgrade' he'd had around his right arm, he did not know if that would be enough to handle the Muslim if she appeared. The only thing he was absolutely sure about was that he couldn't signal the retreat. They had come so far! They couldn't retreat now when they were on the verge of eliminating Satan's forces! In the end there was only one thing he could say to Brother Riseman.

"Matthew, we proceed with God's plan." He said turning to his most loyal follower, "The Lord stands with us."

With that they proceeded down the hallway, dispatching any mutants they came across. While some were resistant to the weapons wielded by Brother Matthew, they had no defense against the gauntlet of the Lord he wore on his right arm. One by one they fell until one of the seven ordained to die was discovered escorting a trio of harlots to safety. He watched with pride as his most strident follower used his holy weapon on them and only due to random chance did the demon spawn survive the first salvo. They ran down the hall but he would not let the Alleyne boy escape. Every last one of The Seven would die and that sword-wielding demon as well by his own hand.

"Find them and kill them. Especially the boy. Alleyne cannot live," he said to Brother Matthew, who advanced down the hallway after the fleeing vermin.

"I know, Father." Riseman said with complete conviction as he neared the end of the hallway.

"God is with you, Matthew. Always remember that." He said as a final bit of encouragement to his follower.

Once he was certain that the man was out of hearing range, he decided it was time to resume ridding the Earth of the children of Satan.

"Now to fulfill my destiny." He said as he turned back in the direction he'd been walking towards before news of the Muslim's fiendish survival had reached his ears.

"Only if your destiny is death murderer," spoke a chilling voice that could not be matched even by the emptiness of space.

Turning to the voice, his eyes fell upon the form of the demon swordsman whom had recently been a thorn in his side. Clad in clothes more at home in the Orient, along with armor and weapons that were hopelessly outdated, was a snowy-haired abomination that dared to tread upon the Almighty's territory of resurrection. He had heard the reports and seen the few video clips from his agents showing this demon's powers and smiled at the fact that this boy would be the next to fall at his hands.

"No, abomination. No, death is a gift that you shall receive this night and it is I who shall deliver the Lord's righteous wrath unto you," he said as he followed his technician's instructions on how to gather energy for another discharge. "I will send you back to your master in **HELL!**"

Just as he was about to unleash his Lord's power upon the hellspawn, the demon swordsman vanished and his right arm suddenly felt unusually light. Turning to see what the cause of this could be, he was shocked to find that, instead of shining metal gauntlet, there was naught but a bleeding stump below his elbow.

"AAAARGGGHHHH!"

"That's one piece cut off," demon swordsman hissed with a voice that could freeze lava. "Shall we go for two?"

The demon was mocking him!

He was mocking the Almighty!

With righteous fury unlike anything he'd experienced before, he reached into his coat with the only hand left to him and pulled out his handgun. Aiming it at the hell spawn's head, he began firing again and again with the intention of sending the beast back to its master in Hell, but no matter how many shots he fired, the monster casually evaded them as though they were nothing. By the time the last bullet was fired and the slide locked into place, the demon was less than six feet in front of him without a single scratch to be seen. Throwing the empty weapon at the foul beast, it was caught one handed with ease before the swordsman used his infernal strength to crush it into a useless lump of metal. With his power gone and his weapons lost to him, he felt the first inklings of fear begin to creep up his spine but he ruthlessly suppressed it, holding fast to his faith in the Lord. Thus, with all his faith, he charged the warrior of hell head on, intent on killing the monster with his own two hands.

He got two feet before a hand as strong as a vise clamped down on his throat and lifted him off the ground.

"You are a monster. You claim to serve God but you regularly violate the Ten Commandments," said the swordsman with eyes looked like they could see his very soul. "You say that mutants are demons, children of the Devil, yet you commit acts that would put you on death row easily. You are a prejudiced bigot who uses religion to justify your racial hatred. Your bloody crusade ends **here**."

Pain beyond description flooded his mind and conscious thought was rendered impossible. He thought he heard a scream of pain but he didn't know whether it was it was him or someone else but five seconds later it didn't really matter.

Why? Because it was about then that, in his brain's final seconds of coherency, he realized that his head had been severed from his body.

Then he realized nothing.

Not ever again.

_**One and a Half Hours Later, An X-Mansion Classroom, **_

_**Deputy Director of O.N.E Val Cooper's P.O.V**_

"Let's go through this one more time, Mr. Harris," Valerie Cooper said as she looked down at the notes she'd made. "When the attack on the mansion began, Ms. Frost ordered all students to remain in their rooms until she gave the all clear. You disregarded these orders and went on the offensive, looking for the intruders and incapacitating any you came across. Why did you do this?"

"Why does someone stand up to a bully who's pounding on someone else? Why does someone put themselves in harms way to protect another?" Alexander Harris asked in response to her question. "Because it's the right thing to do. Besides, I'm not officially a student here so I didn't think her order applied to me."

_Blunt, to the point and somewhat respectful._ She thought thinking on his words, _I suppose I shouldn't ask for much more than that considering what happened here tonight._

"According to the official count, you neutralized fifteen intruders and miraculously only killed one of them, William Stryker himself," she said, picking up a folder that contained a summary of the entire incident. "Care to explain that? Surely considering the abilities you're purported to have you could have defeated him in a nonlethal manner."

"To what end? Captured he would simply be rescued by his followers or permitted to 'escape' by those sympathetic to his cause?" Alexander Harris asked with no sign that he regretted killing Stryker. "While killing him might make him a martyr to his cause, it will also cause a power struggle within their ranks that will keep them divided for a time. If Stryker kept any secrets, even from his own followers, then they will be lost as well and that can only benefit the mutants that still exist."

_Most of the primary points covered and thought out._ She thought, listening to his cold, dispassionate words as he spoke, _Still, I can't let this kid think he can go off killing whoever he wants just because he thinks it's justified._

"Maybe, but you're not law enforcement so you don't have the authority to decide who lives and who dies," she pointed out. "Self-defense as a reason can only be taken so far. Basically no further than knocking out or restraining the threat is where I'd put it in this situation."

"Considering where authorized law enforcement officials were during the invasion and how they faired, I'd say everyone in the school was pretty much on their own." Harris said, clearly not impressed with the security O.N.E had been providing recently.

Not that she could really find fault him for that position. In the last week or so, not only had there been a nearly horrendous massacre of students but a sniper shot on a student and the siege a few hours ago. During all three incidents, O.N.E forces proved to be less than helpful in handling the threats. While the assault on the bus could be blamed on Emma Frost's decision to sneak the formerly depowered mutants out of the area without their knowledge, the other two incidents were indeed their fault. A long range sniper shot that they couldn't detect even after the bullet had pierced Laurie Collins' head and a siege that their Sentinels had been completely useless during. She already knew that Colonel Reyes was tearing into his troops about how completely they'd botched both situations. If she knew the man half as well as she believed she did, then he wouldn't rest until his troops could completely outmatch the next force to try something on Xavier Institute grounds. She herself, once she was done there, was going to supervise the analysis of the metallic arm that reports claimed had been surgically attached to Stryker at the right elbow. Based on eyewitness accounts and what sensor logs they could access, the metallic arm was apparently the cause of Sentinels shutting down as well as the severe injuries some of the mansion residents sustained. Considering that it was just an arm, there was a strong possibility that it had a counterpart and perhaps more somewhere out there.

They had to be ready in case that turned out to be the case.

"While I cannot excuse O.N.E's less than… satisfactory performance, that still doesn't mean you have a license to kill whoever you please," she said, knowing that denying the accusation would do nothing. "If everyone went around killing whoever they thought deserved to die, there'd be chaos. While they might not always work as planned, the laws are there for a reason and must be obeyed."

"Laws are only effective if they're applied equally to all, Ms. Cooper." Harris said, his tone not warming up in the slightest. "Can you honestly say that everyone in the justice system, from the local beat cop up to the Supreme Court, gives mutants the same shake as ordinary humans? If the answer to that's no then perhaps the only way mutants can get justice is by taking it rather then waiting for it to be fairly meted out by the system."

"Mutants aren't the only minority to feel as though they aren't treated equally in this country. If they all were allowed to seek out their own brand of justice, chaos would be the result as well as a lot of dead bodies," she said, pointing out the flaw in his position. "Like it or not, everyone has to answer to and obey the law if order is to be maintained. According to that law, though, as a super powered being, you will have to register yourself as per the guidelines set down with the recently passed Superhuman Registration Act."

She hoped that with this implied legal noose dangling in front of him he might be more inclined to play ball with her rather than continue with this trend of defiance. Then again, most of the costumed heroes she'd expected to do the right thing regarding the Act were currently forming their own resistance in opposition to the recently passed law. Still, despite the power Alexander LaVelle Harris had been shown to possess, he was still just a teenager with only a loose understanding of his abilities. Surely he wouldn't be foolish enough to make an enemy of the entire country.

"While I might not like it, I agree to your first point. Letting things go back to the Wild West way of doing things wouldn't be a good thing." Harris said in an even tone of voice, "As for the latter, you're forgetting one thing: biologically, I'm not human. I am neither Homo-sapien nor homo-superior or even some form of metahuman. If I had to make a guess, I'd say I'm some breed of demon and, therefore, I don't quite fall under the jurisdiction of the Superhuman Registration Act."

_Damn this kid is smart!_ She thought as she confirmed that Harris had indeed found the one loophole in her position concerning him registering with the government officially.

Still she could at least keep him guessing as to whether he'd get into any trouble by killing whoever he felt like.

"Still, you don't know that for sure. For all you know you could be a superhuman or a mutant," she pointed out, capitalizing on the fact that he wasn't sure what he was. "Until you can give my people an answer for certain you should watch your step. Now it's been a long night so you should get some sleep. I know I won't be able to for at least another four hours thanks to this mess."

With that they both left the room and went their separate ways.

As she walked towards the front of the mansion where her car was waiting, she still thought about young Alexander Harris. Assuming that that was his true name, something she had no real proof of, he was definitely something of a wild card since, according to Sentinel scans, he didn't quite match up to any bio-pattern they had on file. Contrary to what some might think, the United States of America weren't entirely ignorant about the existence of demons and the supernatural but, rather, chose to play things close to the vest instead of making it public knowledge. While there were some who relied on the old knowledge found in books and word of mouth, most of those who knew the truth preferred to define the supernatural by more scientific means. They preferred precision to the sometimes vague writings found in old texts written in languages that were no longer spoken aloud by anyone. As far as she was concerned, information was information regardless of where it came from. If it could be depended upon as fact then all was good but, if it turned out to be false, she erased it from her mind and made sure to pay back the person who sold her the bullshit info.

Exiting the mansion, she wondered how she was going to write up the boy's file in the Superhuman Registration Act. While it was true that some of the forms required that the boy be present so that his bio-signature could be added to the database, she could at least fill in what she could and leave the rest blank for whenever the teenager decided to do the right thing. While the young man might not be a big fan of the system as it stood, he didn't strike her as the sort to pick a fight with the entire registered super powered community as well as the government itself. All someone would need to do would be to show him that it'd be less troublesome to go along with the law of the land than it would be to give the American government the finger. Fortunately for her, the X-Men and their crew, while occasionally troublesome, knew how not to step on other people's toes unnecessarily and usually did what they could to avoid bringing more trouble on themselves. So in the end, it would all settle itself satisfactorily. She even had a codename to put down in the files. He mentioned it during one of his sessions with Dr. McCoy after arriving at the mansion and, while Hank would be a bit upset to learn that the infirmary was bugged, it was a necessary move. She'd be disappointed if the X-Men hadn't taken similar steps to keep tabs on the communications and movements of O.N.E assets.

She could see the file now:

Real Name: Alexander LaVelle Harris

Codename: Sesshomaru

Age: 18

Hair: White

Eyes: Gold

Distinguishing Features: Twin slash tattoos on either cheek and purple crescent moon

tattoo on forehead

Power Level: Omega


	4. A Terrible Future, A Forgotten Past

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material contained herein. They all belong to their rightful creators and associated companies. I make no profit off of this whatsoever. I write purely for my own enjoyment and for the fun others feel when reading my work.

_**X-Mansion Dormitories, Room of Noriko Ashida, 1:15a.m, Xander's P.O.V**_

_I want __**out**__**NOW!**_ Xander thought to himself as the last of the New X-Men assembled in Nori's room.

The reason for this desire was two fold.

First was because they'd just learned that an ally of the X-Men, Forge, was staring down the disintegration ray of robot that Prodigy called Nimrod. Apparently it was some kind of Super Sentinel from the future that had gizmos up the wazoo for combating and killing mutants, no matter how powerful those mutants were. While he might not have known this Forge personally, he was the genius that created Surge's metal gauntlets along with the majority of the high tech gear at the mansion. Add to that the fact that the guy was on the side of the angels, so to speak, and that meant that letting him die was not to be permitted under any circumstances. The only question left to answer was what to do with the information they had. Most of the senior X-Men had left for a wedding in Wakanda, leaving only the O.N.E forces in the form of Sentinels and armed soldiers. Considering those soldiers had been less than effective in dealing with the threats these past few weeks, asking them to handle Nimrod would be like asking a school teacher to handle it. It'd be suicide for them. That seemed to be the opinion on the faces of just about everyone else in the room as well. What he also saw on their faces though was a growing feeling to handle things themselves and that was not of the good. While they were all pretty good in the training room and had a good grasp of their abilities, they weren't all that experienced with field work. If they actually went through with their plans, there was a better than even chance that they'd get their asses blown off halfway through. Nevertheless he would probably wind up going with them if for no other reason then they'd probably need his Lazarus sword before it was all said and done. That was what he'd decided to call the katana he'd used so far to heal wounds and revive the dead since he couldn't think up anything cooler to call it. If he thought up something cooler or found out its true name he'd switch but, at least for now, Lazarus was good enough.

The other reason he wanted to get out of the room as soon as possible was because of the random glances he was getting from Nori, Cessily, Sooraya and Laura every few seconds. What was the reason for their glances? When he had heard Nori call out for David, he'd been slipping on the sweat shorts he usually wore to bed and, fearing that it was another attack, had run right out of his room without a second thought. When he arrived he found that there wasn't any real live and in person emergency but one that was happening quite a ways away that Nori thought everyone should know about. He was the third person to arrive right behind Keller and Cessily and, as such, leaving to get a shirt on or something would be a tad awkward. After all if he stayed he'd get stared at but, if he tried to make some lame excuse to go back for a shirt, it would suggest that he wasn't comfortable showing off his chiseled body in front of the ladies. That was one of the few benefits to his change aside from the super powers. His body that before had just started to show some muscle thanks to the weekly patrols and monthly end of the world scenario but, after the transformation, he was somewhat more impressive. He looked like a cross between a male supermodel and a martial arts master with the way he was slim but had muscles that were clearly defined. Calvin Klein would hire him on the spot if the guy walked into the room right then. This was sort of good since it meant that in the looks department at least he'd left his geek status behind. However it also had a downside since it was garnering quite a bit of attention from the ladies in the room and both his eyes as well as his sense of smell supported this idea thoroughly. While he might still be getting used to his senses, he'd managed to identify at least one scent fairly quickly: aroused interest. While he hadn't spent much time exploring the Institute, there had been a few times when he'd just been forced from his room in order to avoid going crazy with cabin fever. During those times a few of the female students had taken it upon themselves to make him feel welcome and, while some had been a bit more with the sneaky side of the Force about it, all had expressed interest in him. Matching the scent he'd sniffed from the more obvious ones with the young ladies who were a bit more slick at the whole 'wrap-this-guy-around-my-finger' routine, he had a pretty firm grasp of what a woman smelled like when she was interested in him.

Three of the four ladies were definitely interested if his nose was any hint and the only reason Cessily was left out of that was because her mutation had left her with a liquid metal body.

Still, he knew she was interested because, while she might be great at controlling her liquid metal body, she was somewhat lacking in the department of concealing what she was interested in from others. This by itself would have simply left him grinning mentally at his switch from outcast to hunk material but there were two things that made this situation increasingly uncomfortable. The first was the fact that three of the four ladies were wearing a sexy panty and mini-tank top combo for sleepwear. Needless to say that the three ladies looked seriously hot in those outfits and this was causing his mind to repeatedly slip into the gutter with images of them, him and a large bed. Coupled with his ability to sense their interest in him and he was doing everything he could to keep his body to reacting to this sensory input. Considering that he was a male teenager who previous to this moment had only seen such examples of beauty on TV or in magazines, it was a losing battle so he personally hoped that this little gathering didn't last long.

"I'm going to punch Mr. Summers in the face," Prodigy said as he took in the image of Nimrod and Forge being projected by Surge's gauntlets.

"Get in line," Noriko said, feeling much the same way as her sort of boyfriend.

"This must be a snapshot. Nimrod is with Forge right now." David said, using his smarts to deduce what precisely was going on.

"But why? Why go after Forge of all people?" Cessily asked, gesturing to the image being displayed mid-air. "If this thing was in New York with Stryker, there's a ton more mutants here to kill. Why go there?"

"Look at the hologram. Nimrod is damaged. Its goal is most likely simple survival." Laura pointed out with her sharp mind working to analyze the facts before her. "According to his file, Forge could repair Nimrod."

"Exactly. Regardless of how advanced it is, Nimrod is still a machine," he said, trying to use the theorizing to distract him from the… scenery. "It would act in the most logical and efficient manner possible when it comes to accomplishing its goals. If it's damaged it would seek repairs before going on a killing spree. Can't start the genocide looking like scrap."

"We have to tell someone immediately. We cannot keep this information to ourselves." Sooraya pointed out, greatly concerned by the information they'd been provided covertly by Forge.

"You're right, Sooraya…" Alleyne said turning away from the hologram. "I'll try and contact the X-Men."

"The same X-Men who assured you Nimrod was destroyed? The same ones that left us here for Stryker to pick off one by one?" Keller asked rhetorically and with much contempt. "This guy Forge is screwed."

While he didn't share Hellion's opinion of the X-Men's behavior, he had to admit that his appraisal of the situation was fairly accurate. Wakanda was on the other side of the Atlantic at the moment. Depending on whether they'd arrived there or not, it'd take them hours to get back to America and who knew how long to make it to where this Forge guy was located. That wasn't even taking into account the possibility that they might be away from any communications device and, thus, might not even know anything was wrong until they checked their messages. One way or another, the X-Men would have to haul ass to just get back to the same continent, much less get to Forge before the Super Sentinel was back up to full strength.

"No." Surge said with a low but defiant tone in her voice. "This has to end. We have to end it. Forty-seven students almost died in the last two weeks and probably would have if it weren't for Xander. The X-Men couldn't save us when it counted. The O.N.E and their sentinels are a sick joke. They'll probably be coming after us next and the Avengers don't care."

"It's up to us. The X-Men are half a world away. We can't wait for them." Nori said sounding more like a true leader every second. "Forge could still be alive and, if he's not, then Nimrod is coming here next. This thing was involved with Stryker and probably played a big role in the attacks on our friends. So **we'll** save Forge. And **we'll** take this thing down. We leave in fifteen minutes so get ready and meet me in the hanger."

"Glad to see that this place is just as exciting as back home." He said with a smile at how similar this was to a Scooby meeting back in Sunnydale. "I guess I might as well tag along with you New X-Men 'cause God knows you'll need all the help you can get against this thing. Plus if one of you does something stupid, at least with me around I can zap you back to life easy enough."

"Thanks, Xander." Cessily said, sounding a bit too happy that he was coming along causing the more observant members of the team to look at her for a moment.

From the looks of things, if liquid metal could blush, then Mercury would be tomato red at the moment.

With that they all left the room to get into their uniforms and make their way to the hanger where the aircraft were stored. A part of him was kinda looking forward to that since he'd never been on a plane that could give most military aircraft a run for their money. Once in his room, it didn't take him long to get battle ready and, while he had to be a bit more careful sneaking down there so as to avoid catching the attention of any of the adults still around, it was manageable with a few bursts of super speed. He was just passing the door to Ms. Frost's office when he stopped to consider something important. He had confidence in the New X-Men, in the abilities of each member of the team, but at the same time he didn't like what he was hearing about Nimrod. A Super Sentinel from the future that likely had detailed files on every mutant that could be considered worth its time to exterminate. Even if they came up with a super clever plan for tackling it, there was no guarantee that all of them would walk away from this situation in one piece. Even if he did have the ability to revive them from death, he'd seen what dying and being brought back had done to Laurie. Hours had passed since the sniper bullet had taken her life. Hours since he had used the power of his Lazarus sword to bring her back to the land of the living fully restored. Even with time to rest she still wasn't completely over what had happened to her and it had actually gotten bad enough for her that Dr. McCoy had given her a moderate sedative to help her sleep.

He didn't even want to think about how the others might react to dying and being brought back.

Laura, because of her healing factor, might be able to handle it better than the others but he'd be an idiot to think that she'd emerge from the experience completely unscathed. With that thought in mind, he settled on a plan that would be a mix of good and bad no matter how things eventually turned out. Nevertheless he couldn't bring himself to move forward without giving the team some kind of safety net to catch them should things go pear shaped somewhere during the course of the mission.

With that in mind he entered the office of one Emma Frost and prepared himself to put the hacking skills he'd learned from Willow to the test.

_**On Board and X-Men Blackbird**_

_**Destination: Eagle Plaza, Dallas, Texas**_

_**ETA: Twenty-nine Minutes**_

_**P.O.V: Cessily Kincaid aka Mercury**_

_What is __**wrong**__ with me!_ Cessily thought as the Blackbird continued to fly down the tunnel that would lead them to their exit point, Julian using TK to clear the way.

Ever since she'd laid eyes on Xander in his sweat shorts, she couldn't stop looking at him every once and a while and, when she did, she was sure that she was blushing somehow. It was the oddest thing because she barely knew the guy outside of the few times they'd been in the Danger Room or the odd time in the hallways. Sure, he was becoming something of a hot topic around the mansion with everything he'd done since arriving there, but she wasn't the sort to let mere gossip or feats of wonder sway her opinion of a person all that much. If that was the case, she'd be positively hero worshiping of every teacher and X-man in the mansion, which obviously wasn't the case since there were quite a few people wearing the X emblem that she didn't like. Nevertheless, she had to say that Xander was quickly becoming a celebrity with how he had dealt with the attack on the bus, saving Laurie and then helping to repel Stryker's invasion of the mansion. Even she, who'd been there for two of the events, had to admit she was impressed as well as a bit… disturbed by how quickly and efficiently he had taken down the enemy. There had been no hesitation, no remorse, as he cut up or slammed down the Purifiers threatening the students. In his eyes, though… in those eyes at those moments there had been a cold fury in them that she preferred not to think about most of the time and definitely hoped she never saw directed at her. All the other students could talk all they wanted about how they never wanted to get on Wolverine's bad side or be looking down the business end of Bishop's energy rifle, but for her Xander's eyes made the previous intimidators pathetic looking.

So why was she acting like she had a crush on him?

That was the question she couldn't quite answer with any certainty but that was not because there was any shortage of reasons why she might like him. From what she'd heard, he wasn't afraid to tell Ms. Frost where to stick her attitude when the blonde headmistress got a little too whimsical with her powers. He was good in a fight, whether it was by himself or as part of a team. He definitely had leadership potential. He was even kind and compassionate since she'd stumbled upon him comforting Laurie after the blonde's close encounter with death. While she had initially wanted to demand an explanation for what they were doing, for Josh's sake, a single look from him had told her the entire story. The snow haired teen wasn't making a move on someone else's girlfriend. He was simply granting comfort to a girl who had been through some serious trauma and would not deny her that even if it might be a little less awkward for him. She had to smile at that and think that the unofficial member of their team had to have a heart of gold buried in that muscled…hot…manly…STOP! She was not going to be reduced to one of those screaming female fans that fawn over those boy band musicians! Still, she had to admit that getting a good look at the guy with only a pair of sweat shorts on had gotten her mind whirring about how it might feel to have one of those arms wrapped around her. She had also noticed how both Laura and Sooraya were looking at him randomly even now and suspected that they too had been **intrigued** by what they had learned about Xander since he arrived at the mansion.

_Nice to know that I'm not the only one distracted at the moment._ She thought with a smile as the Blackbird finally exited the tunnel built into the side of the cliff and began gaining altitude.

"Are they following?" Nori asked David from her place standing behind the pilot's chair.

"Miss Frost is going to kill us." She replied looking out one of the windows that the plane's main cockpit had. "Even Cyclops is going to kill us for this."

"ARE THEY FOLLOWING?" Nori asked again at a louder volume in order to make sure that she got an answer.

"No. No reaction from the Sentinels," Laura replied, who was sitting in front of the sensor console.

"Nobody's ever going to believe that worked," Prodigy said from the pilot's seat. "Oh, God. What are we doing?"

"We totally escaped. Those Sentinel pilots are **SO** fired." Rockslide crowed at the feat that they'd just managed to accomplish. "I mean, seriously, they suck on a weekly basis."

She couldn't really disagree with what Santo was saying because, based on the poor response time and inattention to their surroundings that the Sentinel pilots had exhibited, along with the mess involving Apocalypse, she definitely thought that O.N.E security was rather pathetic. It might have been different if the Sentinels and O.N.E forces had actually managed to provide decent support or maybe even played a large role in defeating a force attacking the mansion. Since they had not, though, she was left with the opinion that most of the mutant mansion residents had: the Sentinels and the O.N.E people were jokes of the highest order. It made her think that perhaps the only reason that those people were assigned to the Institute was to put on a good show for the baseline humans in the country. Maybe being assigned to the Institute was a form of punishment for soldiers who didn't perform well in other areas or punched out their superior officers for one reason or another. In the end the result was the same: she'd sooner put her trust in Xander to keep them all alive than any member of O.N.E.

"True. Then there's the saying I like thinking about in these kinds of situations." Xander said from his position at the rear of the plane.

"Which is?" she asked, interested in hearing yet another tidbit about the unofficial member of the New X-Men.

"'It is often easier to beg for forgiveness then to ask for permission.'" He replied with a smile on his face that showed he found the quote to be quite amusing.

"Why do I get the feeling that you begged for forgiveness quite a bit growing up?" she asked with a smile that showed she was amused as well by his words.

The response to her comment though was oddly more mixed than she'd originally thought, a combination of smug humor with a undercurrent of darkness running beneath the surface, making her wonder what the young man was thinking of. Had she touched on a sore spot or something? If so, she was going to have to work on watching what she said to him in the future so that she didn't wind up putting her liquid metal foot in it again. Then again, if she wanted to learn which topics to avoid around him, she'd have to learn more about him and that'd mean spending much more time with him whether it be training or just hanging out together. It'd definitely involve some trial and error but she was confident that she'd be able to veer away from the more devastating topic landmines without much difficulty. Plus, as a fringe benefit, she'd be able to make sense of what she was feeling when she looked at Xander. Was it just a crush or was it perhaps the foundation for something more? She was no stranger to crushes, having experienced one for Kevin Ford aka Wither, but that had been more a case of her mistaking him to be her perfect match. After all, you take a boy who couldn't touch organic matter without causing it to wither away into nothingness and introduce him to a girl composed of liquid mercury and it looked like a perfect match, right? It was only when she learned how Kevin had used Josh's illicit interactions with the teacher Rahne Sinclair to his own selfish advantage that she began to rethink her relationship with him. Not only was this because of Ford's feelings for Laurie but also because he had resorted to doing things behind his supposed love's back that made her re-evaluate what sort of person Wither really was.

Looking at Xander, she had to wonder if he really was the okay guy he appeared to be on the surface or if he too possessed hidden, selfish depths. She supposed that everyone had some hidden darkness or selfishness inside of them and, given the right circumstances, she might be able to justify, to herself if no one else, manipulating the world around her to get what she wanted. No one was perfect and there was no person on the face of the planet that ever would be. Perhaps that was the true reason why people sought out friends, lovers and eventually got married. To find someone that possessed what they lacked and could help make living in this weird harsh world a little bit easier to bear.

Could Xander be that for her? Could she be that for him?

She honestly didn't know but, assuming they survived this mission to save Forge from Nimrod, she might be willing to seek out the answers to those questions.

_**Dallas, Texas**_

_**Twenty-Eight Minutes Later**_

_**Inside the X-Men Blackbird**_

_**Xander's P.O.V**_

_Well I'd better start thinking of how I'll explain my 'Plan B' to everyone. _Xander thought as he looked out the window to see the city of Dallas fly by beneath the aircraft.

While he knew that the others wouldn't like it one way or another, he was not about to allow them to put all their eggs in one basket on this mission. They were essentially a team that had not been tested under real battle conditions going up against a robot that was powerful enough to give the more powerful and experienced X-Men a tough time. Also, if it was indeed from the future, then it would most likely have detailed files on all of them, making beating it that much harder to do. He didn't think victory was impossible for them to achieve but he wanted to make certain that a second line of defense in case the New X-Men and him bit the dust. That was why he used the time delay function on Frost's computer to trigger about twenty minutes after he'd estimated that they'd arrive at their destination. He figured by then that the way the fight would go would be known one way or another and allow his backup plan to slide into place without too much trouble. He'd still catch grief from the others for this, win or lose, since it would imply that he didn't have confidence in their abilities. He did in point of fact believe that they were pretty good but the Avengers or the Fantastic Four they were most definitely not.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

This sound coming from a console hanging from the ceiling of the cockpit at the front caught his attention, bringing him out of his introspective state and into the here and now. He wondered what precisely this noise meant. Was it just something to tell them that they were closing in on their destination or something else? He didn't know but he trusted that if Prodigy really did know how this plane worked then if he wasn't worried then the rest of them shouldn't be either.

"David? Is everything okay?" Surge asked from her seat directly behind David.

"Everything is fine, Nori." Prodigy replied before he began working on the hanging console.

"No, it is not." Laura stated refuting the pilot's statement

_Okay! Strike one._ He thought as he waited for Prodigy to say something to counter this vote of doom.

"Yes it is." David stated firmly, denying that there was anything for them to worry about.

"I've been watching you. You do not know how to fly this plane." Laura said, adding almost a half hour of observation to her opinion of the situation.

"Well, I know how to use the autopilot." Prodigy stated, finally consenting that he wasn't an expert with this aircraft.

_There goes strike two!_ He thought with increasing worry since beeping noises combined with an admission of amateur status were not good omens in his mind.

"Are you sure we're okay?" Surge asked sounding about as relaxed as he was at the moment, "What's with the beeping?"

"That is not flying." Laura pointed out, completely ignoring the leader of the New X-Men's question.

"I know. I know," Alleyne said, admitting defeat in the argument he was having with sister/daughter/clone of Wolverine. "Switching the verbal interface on."

"Massive energy buildup detected, location: Eagle Plaza." Stated the aircraft in a monotone fashion, "Contact imminent, take evasive maneuvers."

_Here comes strike three about to ride its way right up our collective asses unless someone does something!_ He thought as he tried to figure out a way to pull everyone out of the mess they were in.

In the end though there simply wasn't enough time as a blast of pink energy, probably from Nimrod, shot its way through the left engine, destroying it. Almost immediately they began to plummet towards the ground with sufficient acceleration that those not properly buckled up were sent to the ceiling with only the plane's sturdy construction keeping them from going through it. Fortunately for him he actually managed to get himself secured properly to his chair unlike Rockslide, who was now pressed against the ceiling. As the aircraft's verbal interface kept rattling off their rapidly decreasing altitude, he could hear David doing his best to at least make this something they could walk away from. As the ground got close enough to make out the potholes in it, he seriously began to wonder if his new body came with invulnerability or maybe something like Laura's healing factor because he had a feeling he'd be needing one or the other **real** soon. In the end though it was that prick Keller's TK powers that saved the day as a barely perceivable field of green energy surrounded them all on a sphere of energy.

This happened precisely two seconds before impact.

While not the most enjoyable impact when it was all said and done, everyone was alive and that was always a good thing no matter what else was going on. Once everything had come to a halt and they were sure that there were no other surprises waiting for them, Keller cracked open the still-mostly-intact cockpit and lifted them clear of the wreckage.

"Nice flying there, Alleyne." Keller griped as he released them from his telekinetic bubble.

"And don't give us that 'any landing you can walk away from' crap," Rockslide said, sounding a little miffed at being bounced around the cabin during the dramatic drop in altitude. "Because that landing **sucked**."

"You can fly next time, Santo." Prodigy said in a perfectly casual and honest manner.

_Considering that we're all probably going to be grounded when this is over, I doubt Vaccaro's going to be getting any fly time anytime soon._ He thought as they looked up at the building that was their destination.

"Awww, yeah!" Rockslide said blissfully unaware that the next time he was in a plane it would probably be piloted by the X-Men flying them home to face their punishment.

"I guess it knows we're here then, huh?" Hellion said, voicing what everyone else had already figured out.

"It doesn't matter. We're going in." Surge said with a tone that would not be refuted or denied, no matter what.

_Looks like that Plan B just became a good thing._ He thought as his mind predicted what would likely happen entering enemy territory when the baddie knew you were coming.

With those words they strode up to the front entrance of the building, ready to attempt to sneak in, hoping that the bucket of bolts called Nimrod believed that they had been killed in the crash. Personally he didn't think that they were that lucky but, since he wasn't an official part of the team, he'd follow Surge's lead and do damage control **when** things went south on them. For him it wasn't a case of 'if' things fell apart but rather when because while planning things by the seat of your pants had served the Scoobies well so far in Sunnydale, it wasn't the smartest way to go about things. On the spot planning might work out alright against dumb enemies but against the smarter ones, a plan was always a good thing.

The cons of on the spot thinking was validated when Santo decided to open the door with his left foot, kicking it in.

Not exactly a subtle way to sneak in.

"Santo, you idiot!" Surge yelled once the damage was done to their infiltration of Eagle Plaza.

"There was a chance that Nimrod thought we were dead!" She growled at the rocky teen while looking about to see if the loud entrance had been noticed. "We were sneaking in!"

"Whoops. My bad." Santo said, sounding quite embarrassed at his little screw up.

Everyone let the issue drop, though, since no one really saw the point in getting on their teammate's case about something that couldn't be changed. Proceeding further along into the building, Cessily was the first one to pick out the first environmental clue about their situation.

"Wow, it's dark in here," she said, pointing out that all the power in the building seemed to be gone at ground level.

"That blast we got hit with must have knocked the power out," Prodigy speculated, turning to the metal maiden. "Or the jet crashing outside."

"When I said dark, David, I really meant creepy." Cessily said, pointing out that she didn't mean her comment to be taken completely literally.

"Actually, this is pretty tame in the creep factor department," he said, trying to defuse the anxiety that the dark spooky room might inspire. "Wait until they add ghosts and poltergeist stuff to the mix. THEN it starts to seriously wig me out."

"Let's keep moving." Surge said, using her mutant abilities to give them some light to walk by.

They didn't get far before the others began to sense something off about the situation as well. All of them, to one degree or another, could feel something in the air that had them on edge, ready to throw a punch or fire off a blast at the first shadow that didn't look right. As for him, he was doing his best to make use of his enhanced senses without being overwhelmed by the sensory input that was being picked up by his body. It wasn't easy, considering how sensitive his five senses seemed to be, but debating whether Twinkies were better than Ho-Hos with Willow had given him an eye for detail plus the ability to focus on a set task.

"Something is not right," Sooraya stated, voicing her own unease at the tranquility of the building.

"Did you guys feel that?" David asked, sounding less sure of his actions then before, "It's like the building is vibrating."

"Wait…I think I heard something." Cessily said, looking back and forth between the two largest shadows close to her location.

"I hear them too. I count nine… no, eleven… they're above us, moving this way." Laura said a second after his own senses picked up what hers detected.

"Wait, eleven what!" Mercury asked, sounding like she hated the idea that the fight had gone from six on one to eleven on six all of a sudden. "I thought there was only—"

That was all the redhead was allowed to get out before a red robot lunged from the shadows and delivered a right hook to Rockslide's jaw, knocking the big guy back a couple of feet.

"SANTO!" Surge exclaimed at seeing one of the people she was responsible for get hit.

"What was that?" David asked from his position on the opposite end of their little group. "I can't see anything in here!"

"Everybody get ready!" Nori yelled as she used her powers to increase the illumination she was providing by a factor of ten.

The light did little to improve the situation because, while his own senses had been able to tell him that they were surrounded by eleven things, seeing them clear as day only made him feel worse. Eleven robots of various designs were arrayed out around them and none of them looked like they'd been designed to cater a dinner party. He wasn't sure where they all came from but, considering that they were warbling something about termination, he could only presume that Nimrod had something to do with them. This could have been a good thing since it meant that the Super Sentinel wasn't quite ready for them and, thus, still vulnerable to attack so long as they thrashed this lot quickly enough. With that in mind he fell into the right stance for Green Beret CQC and hoped that that training plus his powerful new form would be enough to keep him as well as the others alive.

_**Lobby of Eagle Plaza, Ten Minutes Later, Laura's P.O.V**_

_The battle is proceeding adequately._ Laura thought to herself as she leapt and twisted in mid-air to evade an attack from the machines assailing the New X-Men.

In her estimation the fight might have been a bit more difficult in another timeline where Xander did not exist but, since that wasn't the case, her appraisal of the situation was still valid. With speed to rival Surge's and strength superior to Rockslide's, he was tearing into the robots with moderate effectiveness. Nevertheless, he was no doubt experiencing the same issue that the rest of them were having trouble with; the limited self-repair capabilities that the machines seemed to possess. Nevertheless, she predicted that they would successfully defeat their enemies within the next fifteen minutes, at which time they could proceed to their primary objective of defeating Nimrod and rescuing the mutant Forge. The question that bothered her, though, was whether that would be soon enough to prevent the Super Sentinel's full restoration to optimum operating levels. She knew no more about the robot from the future than the others but it was enough to cause her analytical mind to determine that if the New X-Men faced off against a fully restored Nimrod, they'd lose. Badly. Even factoring in Xander's resurrection sword, it wouldn't take Nimrod long to realize her friend's strategic value and eliminate him. She would, of course, do everything she could to prevent that from happening but it was not in her nature to shy away from the tactical truth of a given situation.

Bit by bit time passed and, with every minute that went by, another robot was brought down until only three remained. Rockslide took care of one while Xander slammed his enemy into the ground with enough force to crack the stone floor but there was one that remained and was approaching Surge from the rear. She was about to charge forward to intervene when a blast of energy came from nowhere to destroy the final robot, thus saving Noriko's life. When everyone looked in the direction the saving strike had come from they were left wondering whether the blue figure marching towards them was an ally or an enemy.

"SUBJECTS FOUND: NEW X-MEN." Said the blue robot as it continued to advance, "OBJECTIVE IN PROGRESS."

"Take it!" Surge ordered before firing off a blast of electrical energy at the newly arrived threat.

Following her training, she obeyed the command of the person in charge of this team and attacked the robot with Mercury, Rockslide, Dust and Xander. With her leading the strike, she slashed at the robot, cutting through its torso plating with her Adamantium blades and causing serious damage to the systems that lay beneath. Santo followed up with a double overhanded blow while Dust used her powers to interfere with the internal workings of the blue machine. She was somewhat concerned by the fact that Xander had not involved himself yet and, when she turned to determine his status, she noticed that he was looking back at Prodigy for some reason.

"PROTOCOL ERROR: PROTECT MUTANTS," said the Blue Robot without any change in its tone, despite the damage. "PROTOCOL ERROR: SELF-PRESERVATION."

"Nori…Nori, STOP!" yelled David Alleyne with a voice that contained great urgency.

"ERROR. PROTOCOL CONFLICT," the Blue Robot said as more damage was done to its body. "PROGRAMMING ERROR. SHUTTING DOWN. REBOOT."

"Cessily, get out of there!" David yelled as the energy field being produced by the machine enveloped Mercury.

"No…NO!" Came a cry from the elevator as the mutant Forge arrived on the scene. "Stop! Stop attacking it! Nori, get everyone away from that machine!"

It was too late though.

With overflowing energy coursing through the machine and Cessily at the same time, the redhead cried out in pain as her body channeled too much energy for her to handle. Rockslide attempted to intervene but was repulsed by the energy field, thus preventing him from safely extracting his teammate from her position. Deciding to take action herself, she charged the robot and Mercury's position, popping her claws as she went before leaping over her teammate and cutting the parts of Cessily that were stuck in the machine. Kicking off the machine she was able to catch her teammate before the metal gray skinned girl could hit the ground but she wasn't given more time than that before the situation worsened.

"REBOOTING. REPAIRS IN PROGRESS." The Blue Robot said as the damage it suffered began to shrink. "PROTOCOL ERROR. ERROR. FOREIGN PROGRAMMING DETECTED. ERROR. FOREIGN SUBSTANCE CORRUPTING PHYSICAL SYSTEMS—

"ERROR. FOREIGN PROGRAMMING—ERROR—REBOOTING." The machine continued to say as sparks of pink energy began to mix with the blue.

"Cess, are you—" Surge asked Mercury now that they had a moment to breath.

"I'm…I'm okay." Mercury replied as new hands were formed to replace those that had been cut off.

"Foreign programming? I don't—" David began before being cut off by an increasingly worried Forge.

"You couldn't have known… Nimrod came to me for repairs but I transferred his artificial intelligence into another body, an anti-sentinel unit I created for the Institute," Forge state as they watched more and more of the pink energy cover the machine. "My programming overwrote Nimrod's, but this…this is bad."

"RECONFIGURING HARDWARE TO SOFTWARE SPECIFICATIONS. RESET LCD MATRIX." Nimrod stated as the formerly Blue Robot began to take on a form more like the hologram everyone had seen back at the mansion. "COMMENCING. THIS UNIT IS NOW ONLINE. MUTANTS DETECTED. TARGET: FORGE. TARGET: NEW X-MEN. SOLUTION IN PROGRESS. TERMINATION COMMENCES IN 3…2…1…"

While the others were in a state of shock over what had just happened, she and Xander wasted no time in gathering everyone into a single spot, hoping that Hellion could repeat what he did to protect them from the crash of the Blackbird. She was proven right when Julian Keller began to use his telekinetic abilities to surround them in a sphere of green energy but whether this was a conscious act on his part or reflex, she didn't know. In any case a second later pink energy and falling debris bombarded the protective sphere that kept them safe, overwhelming Keller within twenty seconds, but that was enough time for a pocket of safety to be created. Nevertheless Rockslide, Mercury and Xander quickly moved into position to add their strength to the meager stone supports, keeping them from being crushed by the debris above them. It was a temporary measure though. Once Nimrod realized that they were still alive it would no doubt come to finish them off and, with so little room to fight, the chances of them surviving were small indeed. Nevertheless she would fight when the machine from the future arrived and she would not stop until her body was physically incapable of continuing.

Neither her blood nor her training would permit anything else.

_**Beneath the Rubble From Eagle Plaza, Five Minutes Later, Xander's P.O.V**_

"Is everyone okay?" Surge asked after illuminating the cramped little pocket of safety that they were currently stuck in.

"My nose itches…and…and this building is **really** heavy." Santo replied with the strain of his load in his every word.

"Gotta side with Rockslide on this one, boys and girls." He said himself as he rather poorly found out where the upper limits of his newfound strength existed.

He wasn't completely overwhelmed at the moment with Santo and Cessily helping him out but he knew that if they gave out or were somehow taken out of the picture, his strength alone would not be enough to save them for even a second. He considered for a moment experimenting with his other swords on the off chance that they possessed an ability that could prove useful but, given the instability of the little pocket they were all in, he chose to save that as a last resort option. It was then that his ears picked up the sound of crumbling stone and the sound of something high tech. He closed his eyes in an effort to discern more but was interrupted by Laura picked up on what he had already sensed.

"The machine is cutting a path to our position." She said, looking in the direction that Nimrod was coming from.

"Course it is!" He said with a little sarcasm. "It just wouldn't be an adventure if our luck didn't go from bad to worse!"

"Nimrod…you have to run…you have to…" Forge mumbled as he began to regain both consciousness and coherency.

"Julian saved us… is he okay?" Cessily asked with her liquid metal body making her load a little easier to bear.

"He needs medical attention, Cessily." Sooraya replied while keeping the kid codenamed Hellion in a sitting position.

"No, he does not. His heart rate is increasing." Laura said with bluntness coating her every word.

_Definitely going to have to teach her the value of sugarcoating her words._ He thought as he tried to improve his grip.

"Please…just go…run…" Forge said trying to get to his feet on shaky limbs.

"And he has a concussion." Laura pointed out citing the cause of the older man's unsteady movements.

"Nimrod will kill you, like it killed Ororo. It'll go to the Institute… infect the O.N.E Sentinels like it did mine…" Forge said straining to keep his focus amidst the concussion. "It will kill everyone. The students, the 198, the X-Men…every last mutant, eradicated."

"Then we have to destroy it." Surge said, not willing to give into the dire situation around her.

"We can't. I mean, the X-Men couldn't…there's no way we can…there's just no way." Prodigy said, backing Forge's position with his own estimation of the situation.

"Maybe we'll get lucky or something." He said, thinking back to his adventures with the Scooby gang. "After all miracles do happen and with all this booming going on, it's bound to attract superhero attention sooner or later. We just need to keep it together 'til help gets here."

"Xander's right. Even if we can't beat Nimrod we can at least keep it occupied until someone who can flatten it gets here." Surge said lending her support to his statement. "It's either that or save the tin can the trouble and just let this place fall on top of us. Me? I'm more for causing that thing grief than lightening its load!"

"Got that right! Hoo-Rah!" He declared, a little of his Halloween Green Beret filtering into his voice.

It was right about then that the concrete around them began to vibrate, indicating that Nimrod was getting really close to their position. It was a bit of good luck that Hellion started to come to right then because it went without question that they were going to need every able-bodied mutant present to survive more than ten minutes. It was with that thought that the Super Sentinel from the future broke through into their little pocket and, as usual, it had the most boring thing to say.

"TARGETS REACQUIRED. TERMINATION IN PROGRESS." Nimrod said, sounding like a funeral gong as it spoke.

"Get out of here, David! GO!" Surge yelled as she hit the robot with a massive blast of electricity in the hopes of distracting it.

"TARGET: SURGE. ELECTRICAL ATTACK." Nimrod said raising an arm in Nori's direction, "ADAPTING. COUNTER-MEASURES IN PLACE."

_Damn that was fast!_ He thought with surprise at how quickly this poor excuse for an A.I adapted its tech to Nori's attack, _I guess we're going to have to be faster if we want to beat this thing._

"Can't…can't fight it…run…" Forge said at a volume barely above a whisper.

Running however wasn't an option.

There was only one way out of the chamber and it had a big pink robot blocking that direction quite nicely. Even if the tunnel that had been cut was open to them to be used, he wouldn't have been surprised if the machine had some tricks at the ready to keep them from escaping. This thing seemed to think of everything and, with its knowledge of things that could come, it'd be like trying to beat someone who knew your playbook by heart. The only way to counter something like that was to do the unpredictable and unconventional, since it would confuse the logic centered robot quite a bit. Hopefully enough for them to put it down but he wasn't ready to put money on it just yet. He watched as Santo and Cessily tried to charge the thing but he didn't even need to look to know that a frontal assault would be useless against the Super Sentinel.

"PROXIMITY ALERT: MULTIPLE TARGETS APPROACHING." Nimrod said as energy crackled around its torso. "SOLUTION IN PROGRESS."

With those words the robot unleashed an omni-directional blast that sent everyone, including himself, to the ground feeling like they'd just ran face first into an Adamantium wall. Thanks to the resilience of his new body he was recovering quickly but he was unsure as to whether it would be quick enough to avoid getting fried. Pushing himself into a sitting position, he watched with fear as Nimrod's left hand began to glow with the buildup of deadly energy before being aimed at a dazed Hellion.

"Julian…" Santo said, still sounding a little loopy in the head.

"Get…we have to get up…" Surge said as she tried to obey her own commands and rise to her feet. "Santo, get up!"

Seeing what was about to happen, he tried to get to his own feet in the hopes of removing the arrogant teenager from the line of fire but his body was slow to obey. He felt numb all over, making him think that the assault had been centered on the nervous system rather than on anything else, and it was causing his recovery to be slower than usual.

"No. Not again…" Rockslide said finally managing to get to his feet.

Then with more strength and determination than he had ever seen, Santo Vaccaro placed himself between Nimrod and Hellion while pushing Keller as far away from ground zero as he could.

"NOT AGAIN!" Rockslide yelled before bright pink energy tore him apart reducing him to gravel on the floor of the chamber.

"SANTOOOO!" Cessily screamed as the last bits of her teammate fell to the ground.

The cold ice age fury that he'd felt when Stryker and his people attacked the mansion reappeared in seconds. He cursed himself and his body for not being able to recover in time to do anything, He made a promise on his soul that this **abomination** would not escape retribution for what it had just done. Just as he had dealt final punishment on Stryker for the man's heinous actions, so too would he send this contraption to the scrap heap.

"Fucking machine!" Keller said with a voice filled with rage at the loss of his friend as he brought his TK powers to bear.

"Keep it together, Hellion!" Surge yelled, trying to keep her teammate from acting recklessly.

"Then back me up!" Julian said before unleashing all his power on the Super Sentinal with a might roar of rage and defiance.

"TELEKINETIC EVENT IN PROGRESS." Nimrod said emotionlessly, not showing the slightest sight of being affected by the assault. "COMPENSATING."

With the initial counterattack proving to be ineffective, Laura and Dust were quick to pick up the slack so Hellion could take a moment to recover his spent strength. Infuriated by the loss of a good guy and a fellow pro-wrestling fan, he too dove into the fight. Taking advantage of every moment of distraction that showed up, he teamed with Laura in cutting through the thick armor of Nimrod's torso. It wasn't easy since, even with his quicker-then-the-eye-could-follow speed, the machine was somehow able to come close enough to hitting him to force him to break off an attack or two.

"INITIATING SELF-REPAIR SEQUENCE." Nimrod stated after receiving a nasty gash from Laura's twin claws.

It was as he danced the dance of life and death that he realized that one of their number was not fighting. Glancing in Mercury's last known position, his resolve softened a moment when he took in the sight of Cessily sifting through Santo's remains with her hands. He didn't know how close they were but, given how the redhead was growing increasingly agitated, it was clear she was not taking his death well at all.

"Cessily! He's gone!" Surge said trying to snap her team member out of it. "Leave him!"

"He's not reforming!" Cessily bellowed with agitation ignoring Nori's orders. "Why isn't he reforming? Xander! Help him!"

Not knowing if his Lazarus sword would be able to revive Rockslide, he nevertheless chose to at least attempt it since it would mean one more fighter on their side of the battle. However, his one second of inattention gave Nimrod an opening and the machine managed to knock both Cessily and Surge for a loop. Charging in so as to keep the robot from finishing the two ladies off, he was shown in seconds why reckless actions against this creature would not be helpful. The second he was halfway to the mechanical monstrosity, it turned its head towards him and fired beams of energy from both eyes as well as its mouth. All three connected and, while he had managed to get his arms up to shield the rest of his body, he was still knocked into the nearest wall hard enough to leave a decent sized dent. Spikes of pain danced up and down his arms, reminding him of the time his father had used a frying pan fresh from the stove to smack him around, burning his skin with the hot metal. This, though, was much worse and, as he lowered his arms, he could see that seventy percent of his arms were burned black. The only good news he had was that he could still move the arms for the most part as well as his hands and fingers, albeit with quite a bit of pain. He didn't know how long it would take his arms to heal but he could still fight and that was good enough for him.

He looked across the room and saw that while his foolish charge had bought both Cessily and Nori some time, those few seconds were about to run out as Nimrod prepared to terminate Surge. Fortunately he was not given an additional person to attempt to revive with his sword because a booming energy blast slammed into Nimrod, blowing half the machine's face off. Sadly this was not the instant kill shot it would have been for everyone else but it did allow a returning David to go to his sorta girlfriend's side. However it looked as though this merely meant that both of them would die by Nimrod's hands instead of just the blue-haired leader of the New X-Men.

_Not on my watch!_ He thought as he poured on the speed like never before and threw all he had into kicking the machine in the face while Hellion delivered a telekinetic knee to the robot's stomach.

Leaping clear of any counter move by Nimrod, he watched as Dust and Hellion worked to keep the monster's attention divided. Seeing this, he moved back to where the others were gathered and hopefully thinking up a better plan than 'keep hitting it until it goes down for good' because that plan wasn't working.

"Have to find a way…my responsibility…my burden…or everyone's going to die…" Nori managed to get out as she recovered from Nimrod's blast.

"Nori! We've got to go!" David said helping his girlfriend to her feet.

"NO. Screw slowing this thing down!" Nori said shaking off the African American's hands. "We're going to send this robot to hell!"

"There's no way to stop it," Forge argued, trying to talk the leader of the New X-Men against her present course of action.

"There has to be a way, Forge. There's always a way." Surge said defiantly as she refused to accept running scared as a viable course of action.

"This is suicide. Let the X-Men—" Forge began to say before he was cut off.

"No. There's no time. WE have to stop it." Noriko said, blocking what the maker of machines was trying to say.

"You shouldn't walk with a concussion." Laura said, trying to verbally stop the inventor from making his situation worse. "It is very bad for you."

"Forge…you said that you transferred Nimrod's programming into something **you** created…" David said, trying to come up with something strategically useful. "Could it now have some weakness the original Nimrod didn't?"

"No. Nimrod updated the anti-Sentinel hardware. It essentially re-created itself." Forge said, slowly shaking his head at the hopelessness of the situation. "It's indestructible, self-repairing, and completely unstoppable. We have to—wait a minute. Not everything inside the robot is Nimrod. The time device."

"The what now?" he asked, not knowing where the adult had gotten that from.

"If we overload the time device inside Nimrod it would detonate, taking him down from the inside out." Forge said with renewed optimism for their present situation.

"I can do that." Surge said with energy crackling around her eyes.

"NO! It's too dangerous." David said, stepping in before anyone else could lend their support to this already insane plan. "Don't you understand? You'd have to get through Nimrod's armor, expose the device and keep it exposed while you attacked."

"David, listen—" Nori said, trying to persuade her boyfriend into coming around to her way of thinking.

"NO! He'll kill you, Nori." David declared, unwilling to hear so much as one more word.

"David's plan is sound." Laura said voicing her opinion of the plan, "Xander and I will open up the Sentinel."

"Damn right we will," he said, glad that she had thought to include him in what could potentially be the most dangerous part of the strategy.

"No…that's not what I meant…" David said frantically as he realized that he had only made things worse.

"I can keep it open, as long as you need," Cessily said with raised fist and harsh voice. "This thing killed Santo and it's going to pay for that even if Xander can bring him back with his sword. This bastard's going DOWN!"

"Guys…don't do this…" Prodigy said even though it sounded like he already knew he'd been outvoted.

"All the killing… all the death and revivals. We have to turn things around right now, David." Nori said as she removed the gauntlets that he'd been told regulated her powers. "It has to end here. Tonight. No matter what it takes."

With those words she began to draw energy from everywhere with some of it coming through the small cracks and openings that existed in the walls of the chamber. He could smell as well as see the power gathering and he had no doubt that, so long as she was given a single clean shot, the leader of the New X-Men would succeeding in force feeding the time device more juice than it could handle. Even as he heard Hellion will his TK shield to stay up with the power of his will alone, he knew that the conclusion of this battle was about to be decided one way or another.

"Laura! Xander! NOW!" Surge ordered as she reached the maximum amount of energy she could draw in and then contain.

Running forward, with Laura following close behind, claws popped and ready to cut through their designated target area, he went in first slashing with the claws that had replaced his human fingernails, successfully piercing the armor from shoulder to hip. Dodging to the side to both give Laura room to attack as well as to avoid any counter move the tin can might see fit to send his way, he smiled at first when he saw his partner/friend from New York mimic his attack somewhat but instead she cut from hip to shoulder in the opposite direction leaving an X shaped hole in the armor.

The smile didn't last long.

"MASSIVE DAMAGE TO EXTERIOR CHASSIS; MUTANT DESIGNATION: TALON ATTACK IN PROGRESS." Nimrod stated as Laura was about to finish her slicing. "IMPLEMENT FORCE FIELD FOR FUTURE ATTACK. INITIATE COUNTER-MEASURES."

With those words the Super Sentinel unleashed a blast of energy that bathed the girl who was his friend, without being his girlfriend, in lethal pink energy. He watched in horror as the attack seemed to burn away her skin to leave nothing but scorched muscle and barely concealed bones in place of the beautiful young woman he knew. He knew that her own healing factor was potent, that it could heal almost any injury that she might receive, but a part of him was worried that this might be the one wound that her mutant gift would be powerless against. If he was angry with the machine before, he was outright murderous now and so potent was this emotion that it almost robbed him of the ability to think rationally. As it was, it was taking a large portion of his self-restraint to keep himself from tackling the monstrous machine head on, thus ruining the master plan they were working from. Still, as soon as he saw his chance he was going to run in there and carry Laura clear of the danger zone so she could heal without interruption.

"Monster!" Cessily yelled as she stretched her arms like Mr. Fantastic and clamped down on the edges of the damaged armor. "I won't let you hurt anyone else!"

"ERROR. SELF-REPAIR SYSTEMS ARE BEING INHIBITED BY MUTANT DESIGNATION: MERCURY." Nimrod said without any feeling at all. "CASTING SHOCKWEB."

"AAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Mercury screamed as pink electricity arced up and down the robot's body, "NORI! I can't-!"

"It's okay, Cess. I'm here," Surge said as she leapt onto Nimrod's chest while shoving all the power she'd gathered into the robot's circuitry.

For a while the light from the attack was so bright he had difficulty seeing what was going on at the center of the battle, him superhumanly acute eyesight working against him and forcing him to raise his arms in order to shield his eyeballs from the near blinding light. Ten seconds later he saw a form leap away from Nimrod and thought it was close enough to Nori's figure to be her so he assumed that that meant the deed was done and the battle won. However, when he began hearing the rising hum of energy being generated, his hopes were dashed as the cloud of dust that had kicked up by the effort was blown away revealing a severely damaged but still very much present Nimrod. Strangely enough this only deepened the chilly fury he was feeling and solidified his commitment to bringing down this monster even more. Unsheathing his Lazarus sword, more on instinct than anything else, he delivered a complete three hundred and sixty degree slash, enveloping everyone within range with its healing and reviving energies. He knew it wouldn't affect Nimrod since the machine was one hundred percent mechanical and, if the tin can tried to absorb the energy from the sword to enhance its own repairs, it'd get a bad case of indigestion.

Magic and machines rarely went together very well.

In fact it was now his intention to see just how well his powers and Nimrod went together because at the moment it looked as though he was the only one in remotely good shape to handle the machine. Charging forward, he held nothing back anymore, not one ounce of his speed or power, because he knew that if he did it might be the last mistake he ever made. Spinning on one foot, he kicked the machine as hard as he could and watched as it flew back through the hole it had made to get down to them. Not pausing he followed and, once he located his prey, he zoomed in at top speed to keep the pummeling up as best he could. Punch after punch he threw at the killing machine, slash after slash from his claws, doing his best to increase the amount of damage the Super Sentinel would have to deal with past the point of no return. However, despite his best efforts, he could tell that at most he was keeping the robot's systems where they were rather than making them worse. Despite his best efforts he simply wasn't damaging the thing severely enough or quickly enough to beat it. If this kept up he'd probably drop from exhaustion sooner rather than later. He needed a new plan of attack because this one wasn't working. Backing off a dozen or so feet, he tried to think of some other way he could bring this sonuvabitch down as quickly as possible.

_Guess it's time to see what these other two swords can do, _he thought, reaching down with both hands and pulling the unused blades from their sheathes. _If you can hear me, swords, please guide my hands so that I can put this motherfucker in the ground for good._

In response to his words he felt the pulsing, the same sensation he'd felt moments before he'd used the Lazarus sword to heal Jay Guthrie, and, with the power that was their own, the blades transformed. The one in his right hand, the one that looked like a battered, antique katana, transformed lengthening itself until it was both as wide and as long as a car's bumper. For the other its blade took on a neon green glow while lengthening to the point where it could easily match Sephiroth's sword in terms of length. Together they made for an impressive sight and, true to his earlier request, he watched as his right arm moved of its own volition, raising the blade above his head before bringing it down in a vicious slash. What resulted from that slash, though, was a blast of golden energy at least thirty-five feet high and ten feet wide that crossed the distance between him and his target in a matter of seconds. He could see when the energy wave hit Nimrod since there was a faint warping of its shape before it continued on down the street for a block or two. When all of the energy from the attack was spent, he watched and waited to see if he had succeeded in sending the Super Sentinel to that big scrap heap in the sky or if a little something more was needed.

The latter scenario turned out to be the right one as he watched a humanoid form rise from the ground where the pink robot had been prior to his assault.

The dust produced from the attack drifted away to reveal Nimrod still functional but now missing its right arm along with some of its shoulder. Had the machine moved to the side at the last moment to shield the majority of itself from harm? Possible. If so then he would have to get much closer if he wanted to make a solid direct hit. Running in while preparing for the inevitable energy blasts that the machine would send his way, he closed into striking distance before using a move belonging to the genius of hard work to send the robot into the sky. A solid kick to the thing's crotch sent in flying into the air like it'd been launched by a catapult, setting it up for a move he instinctively knew would work even though he knew he'd never done something like this before. Placing both swords in a ready position, he began channeling the power he felt within his own body into them and then, with two powerful swings, he called out name of one of the blades and the name of the other's signature technique.

"BAKUSAIGA! KAZE NO KIZU!"

The results were as quick as they were impressive.

Two blasts of powerful energy shot towards their target, the Super Sentinel Nimrod, unmatched in strength by anything modern technology could produce save by the geniuses of the world's leading superhero teams. Then, about halfway to its target, the two streaks of energy did something he had not anticipated but still enjoyed nonetheless. They collided with one another, wrapped themselves around each other, and turned into a gold and green Oriental dragon that caused it to increase its speed dramatically to swallow Nimrod whole before exploding. The light from the blast was so bright that it probably tricked the entire city into thinking that night had turned into day with how it chased away the darkness. It didn't really last that long, maybe five seconds at most, but it was enough for him to feel somewhat confident that the attack really had done in the killing machine from the future.

Mr. Murphy and the Harris luck, though, took that moment to prove him wrong when, instead of numerous small bits of scorched metal falling to the ground, he saw Nimrod floating in the air on one thruster. The attack had done serious damage as most of the machine's insides were exposed for all to see, the other arm had been blown off and the thruster keeping it aloft seemed like it was coming from its ass. This thought alone made him think that the machine was somehow mocking him, contemptuously looking down on him, as though it was completely unimpressed with the power behind the attack. This caused the cold fury within him to reach a new level of chill and so it was not surprising that he was only peripherally aware of the air spiraling around him in a mini-tornado. He didn't hear the gasps of shock from the others as they emerged from the tunnel that Nimrod had carved out to get down to the pocket they'd been in. All he heard, all he felt, was the rage that existed both in his blood as well as in his mind that demanded that the pink machine hovering in mid-air not leave in a functional or salvageable state.

With that thought, clear human thought began to slide to a more advisory position and his rage taking control of everything else.

_**Inside the Former Pocket of Safety, Two Minutes Ago, Laura's P.O.V**_

"Sounds like Xander's raisin' all kinds of hell up there," Rockslide said as Julian finished using his telekinetic abilities to lift the remainder of the rock-based mutant's parts to where the rest had been assembled.

Indeed the power that Xander had exhibited had been at least Colossus-level, if not a bit higher. His speed was also above what she had seen prior to this encounter, implying that the teenager's emotional state could affect the upper limits of his powers. Whatever the case he had proven himself to possess power that placed him at the top of the New X-Men in terms of strength. Whether or not this power would be enough to allow him to defeat Nimrod on his own she did not know but strategic prudence dictated that she move to support him just the same. If he was not up to the task of fighting the Super Sentinel single-handedly then he would likely perish without support and… she did not want that. She had no words to define what she was feeling at that moment, she had never felt anything that wasn't connected to her function as a weapon, but it was compelling her to leave this artificial cave quickly to aid in the fight that was going on outside. With his sword he had undone the damage that Nimrod had done in the blink of an eye, making her feel as though she was operating at peak efficiency. Looking at the others, she could tell that they had likewise been healed and it had left them stunned at what their unofficial teammate was capable of. Words of thanks though could wait until the battle was truly over.

"He will need help if he is to defeat Nimrod," she said before running up the tunnel the pink Sentinel had used to reach them popping the claws in her hands as she went.

She was not surprised to hear the other New X-Men, Forge as well, following her since their sense of debt and payback would require that they aid the person who had healed them. Mercury would no doubt be coming for a measure of revenge for the trauma and pain the machine had caused her. So long as this need for vengeance didn't impair her ability to fight, she would say nothing but should it decrease their chances of victory she would have to do something to minimize the damage. Using her excellent memory, she tried to calculate the amount of damage the target had taken thus far and how such information could be used to their advantage. While David's plan to defeat Nimrod had proven ineffective, it would still have done considerable damage to the robot's inner workings, reducing its offensive and defensive capabilities by at least fifty-eight percent. Add to that the potential damage that Xander was doing to it outside it was entirely possible that they could finish the battle within the next twenty minutes, provided that the enemy unit didn't get a chance to repair itself. As she neared the end of the tunnel and for the first time saw the surface, she saw a bright light fill the air along with a deafening explosion that did not bode well since, to her knowledge, only Nimrod was capable of such an assault. However, as she finally located Xander standing unharmed in front of the damaged Eagle Plaza with two unknown swords in his hand, she was forced to question this assumption. While she had not been able to see the actual discharge of energy, she could smell the ozone left behind by the blast as it passed through the air. It was unlike anything she had ever smelled before.

She was about to ask him what had happened when the air around him begin to whirl about him like a small but growing tornado. Dust, debris and a strange light red smoke whirled around him, making it difficult to get a clear view of her friend. That was what made her wonder if she was truly seeing him take on an increasingly ethereal form but she didn't need to wonder about that for very long. With the speed of a professional baseball pitcher's fastball, Xander's almost cloud-like form shot into the air, rebounding off the walls of the vortex before splashing down precisely where he started from. However this impact caused a great deal more of the light red smoke to surge throughout the mini-tornado and was also responsible for the vortex widening considerably. It was ten seconds after the whirlwind settled on its new size that it dispersed and what it left in its wake was a large demonic looking dog that was at least four stories tall and three eighteen wheeler lengths from the tip of the tail to the end of its snout. Red eyes, a purple crescent moon on its forehead and claws that looked like they could tear a human in two with a single swipe. She, along with the other, was shocked into immobility at the sight of this massive creature that used to be their ally. This moment passed, though, as before her eyes the hound took to the skies on twinkling, sparkling, clouds that allowed it to gain purchase on the supposedly intangible air.

His destination was all too clear.

Nimrod.

Looking back to the Super Sentinel's location, she could see that while it was still severely damaged, the amount of exposed circuitry was noticeably less even from where she was standing. She knew not whether Xander could prevail in his new form, not knowing its capabilities, but she chose to err on the side of caution. Running forth, she leapt up the fire escape of the nearest building and began leaping from roof to roof in the direction of where Nimrod still hung in the air. She didn't even bother looking back to check and see if the others were following her. Either they would or they wouldn't. If they did she would welcome their assistance but, if they didn't, then she would aide her friend by herself.

By the time she reached the spot directly below Nimrod, Xander was already attacking the machine with his claws and teeth. Despite what some might have thought, this was not a one-sided battle because somehow in the time since her friend's last assault it had repaired enough of its systems to evade the hound attacking it. She didn't see signs of it using any of its previously used weaponry so it was possible that that part of its systems was still offline. If they could keep it that way there was still a chance they could achieve their objective of defeating it. First, though, they would have to bring it down to a level where she could actually reach it and, as she heard the sounds of both Hellion as well as Surge's powers coming up behind her, she knew how to make it so.

"We need to bring Nimrod down here," she said to them, turning to face them. "We won't be able to help Xander so long as they fight up there."

"No problem! Right Ashida?" Hellion asked as he increased the intensity of his powers and sent a blast towards the mutant hunter/killer from the future.

"Just shut up and attack, Keller!" Surge replied as she sent her own onslaught of electrical energy skyward.

This turned out to be a turning point in the fight in the sky.

Apparently evading the attacks of a furious hound was one thing.

Evading the assaults of a furious dog, an arrogant telekinetic and an irritable teenage girl was something else entirely.

After a quick succession of blows from both Hellion and Surge, Nimrod was unable to react in time to evade Xander, causing the machine to be swatted from the sky by a white paw to the torso. Falling from the sky the Super Sentinel crashed into a nearby park, digging a trench into the dirt forty yards long and two feet deep. Without asking, Hellion used his powers to lift her and Surge into the air with his powers to take them to the site of the impact. As they landed, the other members of the New X-Men arrived as well, including Xander, who landed on the grass of the park hard enough to cause vibrations. Watching as he walked towards his prey in a predatory fashion, she had to wonder just how much of the rational human mind was in control and how much was just the animalistic side of her friend. In the end she wasn't given another moment to think about it because, with a bark that echoed throughout the area, Xander leapt into the air clearly with the intent of crushing Nimrod beneath his left paw.

This was a mistake since, in a surprise move, Nimrod somehow managed to fire off a potent energy blast from its chest area, completely enveloping Xander's front left leg in its deadly light. The howl of pain she heard lasted for several seconds but if Nimrod thought that the blast would buy it some time, it was gravely mistaken. With a bit of mid-air repositioning she hadn't thought was possible for one so large, the large canine put its other paw forward in such a position that not only would it accomplish the task of the left but would keep him on his feet afterwards. Despite this, though, she could see the crimson blood dripping from the stump that used to be the left leg of the canine form of her friend. Would he bleed to death? Unlikely. While she had only limited instances in the past to witness his body's recuperative capabilities, they appeared to be as impressive as her own. Maybe they were even more potent to the point where they could grow his arm back. That was one ability she was uncertain she possessed. She knew from her last encounter with Kimura that she could separate a limb from her body and reattach it in seconds. Could she grow herself a new limb after the previous one was damaged beyond repair? She did not know and she was not eager to find out the hard way.

"DAMN! Just how tough is Xander?" Rockslide asked in amazement that the giant dog was still standing after getting one of its legs blown off.

"I don't know but if Nimrod's recovered enough to fire off energy blasts like that then, big dog or not, Xander's going to need backup." Surge said, shaking off her own shock at the sight before her. "Laura, go and see if you can calm Xander down. I don't want him accidently biting us in half trying to get to Nimrod."

Nodding in response to this order, she set off towards where Xander stood, looking down at his prey as though trying to determine if the metal monster needed more pounding. She was not certain how precisely she would calm down a four story tall demonic canine but she would attempt to utilize what she was taught by the Facility as well as what she'd observed from the others at the mansion. Walking up to him slowly, so as not to appear threatening, she waited until he noticed her before stopping and looking at him right in the eyes. In Megan's school she once heard that the eyes were considered windows to the soul and if so, there was quite a bit of anger in Xander's soul right now, dimmed slightly now that the object the fury was directed at was in a paw sized crater and not moving but still looking as though it could surge forward depending on how the situation changed. She would have to choose her words and actions from here on out very carefully to avoid provoking him.

"Calm down, Xander. Surge and the rest of us are here to help you now," she said, putting as much caring and soothing tones into her words as possible. "We also need to treat your wound. Can you transform back into your old self? Please?"

The large hound turned away from Nimrod and looked down at her as though he found something truly interesting about her but she could see no light of human thought or comprehension in his eyes yet. Apparently he needed something more in order for his more human side to assert itself. Walking closer to him while keeping her movements non-threatening, she soon arrived at his right leg and, with a bit of awkwardness in her movements, wrapped both of her arms around that leg.

"Thank you for saving my life. Something in Nimrod's blasts inhibited my healing factor," she said, unsure of the feeling that accompanied her words both internally and externally. "If you hadn't used your sword, I would likely have perished within minutes. Thank you."

For a moment she waited to see if her words had had the desired effect and, thankfully, the reaction to what she had just said was quick in coming. With much greater speed than before, the giant form of the demon dog lost its solid state and, like smoke, it was blown away until what was wrapped in her arms was not a large canine leg but Xander in his human form. Looking up into his eyes, she watched as the human mindset and way of thinking slid into place while the more feral side eased backwards into the depths from whence it came. However, before she could say more, he seemed to become suddenly aware of his wound and almost collapsed to the ground if she hadn't supported him.

"Damn! Losing an arm…really…sucks!" he managed to get out as he forced his body to enable him to stand on his own.

"Indeed. It was strategically unsound of you to shift to your alternate form since it appears to deprive you of the ability to think rationally." She said, not knowing what else to say in response to his words. "You should have waited for us. We could have helped."

A large discharge of electricity interrupted their conversation and, looking to the source, she saw Surge climbing quickly out of the paw crater as though to escape a blast. This proved to be the case since a massive explosion of pink energy erupted from the crater seconds later, increasing its diameter and depth. Apparently she had chosen to attempt their original plan a second time and it had succeeded. She supposed that this was only logical. Xander had inflicted massive damage to the machine mere minutes ago so it was quite likely that Nimrod's systems had been damaged to the point where it could do nothing to protect itself. If the explosion was indeed a sign of the time device overloading then it was highly likely that the battle was over and that they had won. With zero casualties and the only one still possessing injuries being Xander, she would have to conclude that the mission was an acceptable success. Watching the others approach, she shifted her position to his right side and placing herself under his arm supported some of his weight so he didn't overburden his injured body.

"I guess it'd be pretty stupid to ask how you're doing, eh?" Surge asked as the New X-Men walked up to the two of them.

"While opening bottles is going to a little trickier from here on out, I'll get used to it," Xander said with his usual lopsided smile on his face. "Still we came, we fought and we kicked its ass. I'd call this a solid win in the New X-Men column."

"Then it would appear we have arrived too late to be of assistance." Came a female voice from overhead drawing everyone's attention upwards.

Descending from the sky, surrounded in flames, was the superheroine she was able to identify as Firebird and, following her down in numerous ways, were members of the Texas 50 state Initiative Team called the Rangers. Phantom Rider, Red Wolf, Shooting Star and Texas Twister all arrived by their own individual ways, whether it be on horseback, on foot or by artificially produced tornado. While somewhat surprising, she supposed that it was only natural that after all the destruction and fighting that had gone on that it would draw attention from other members of the superhero community. Still, it struck her as odd that they'd responded as quickly as they did given that the battle against Nimrod had begun less than an hour ago. Not enough time for them to arrive so swiftly unless they had been in Dallas to begin with but, if that was the case, they would have arrived sooner. It was an odd occurrence but one that she found to be irrelevant since the mission was over.

"Still, it was probably a good thing nonetheless that Ms. Frost notified us of your mission." Phantom Rider said, bringing his horse alongside the group. "Considering the lightshow we saw comin' into town, things might've gotten outta hand had yer luck been a little worse, young'ins."

"Ms. Frost told you we'd be here?" Surge asked with some confusion at the man's words. "I thought she was in Wakanda with the other X-Men attending Storm's wedding."

"According to Initiative HQ, the message was sent from the Institute." Shooting Star said, beginning to sound a little confused as well. "Could she have used the school as a relay point for her message?"

"Not likely. The communications equipment in the blackbird they used would have been able to hook up to any communications network in the world," Prodigy said, shaking his head in the negative at the theory. "Plus since the Black Panther's one of the people getting married, there'd probably be Avengers attending the wedding as well. She would have told them and let one of your people pass on the message to the rest."

The more she heard as the two teams discussed the anomaly, the more she believed that something strange was indeed afoot. It was only when she smelled increased anxiety from Xander that she found her first clue as to the true source of the message from Ms. Frost. While she might not understand her non-mission related emotions, she had been trained to use all her enhanced senses to their fullest and understand what those senses were telling her. Right now they were telling her that her friend started experiencing anxiety just after Surge had question the Rangers on Ms. Frost's message. That would imply that he knew something about it.

"Do you know something about this message, Xander?" She asked him, drawing the attention of the others present to the two of them.

"Well…um…maybe?" Xander replied, looking very much like he'd prefer to be anywhere but amongst them at the moment.

"What do you mean 'maybe'?" Hellion asked, not sounding very suspicious of his unofficial teammate.

"Well I **might** have hacked into Ms. Frost's computer in her office and I **might** have set up a time delayed message to Initiative telling them about Nimrod being at Eagle Plaza." Xander replied, looking as though he expected to be scolded very shortly.

"Why did you tell them? Didn't you think we could handle it!" Surge asked with growing anger at this obvious lack of faith in the skills of the New X-Men.

"It's not like that, Surge!" Xander replied, trying to defend his actions. "I really did think we had a chance but I didn't want to put all our proverbial eggs in one basket. Aside from some Danger Room sessions and Stryker's goons, the New X-Men haven't had a whole lot of in the field experience. If Nimrod had wound up beating us, I wanted a second line of defense set up to take it down."

A strategically sound move now that she took the time to consider all of the variables.

It was true that the New X-Men had very little experience performing missions outside of the Institute and, considering the threat level given to Nimrod in the database beneath the mansion, the probability of them succeeding was below fifty percent. If it hadn't been for Xander's sword, it was quite likely that they'd be dead right now and Nimrod would be on its way to the nearest concentration of mutant life signs to fulfill its primary objective. Looking at the others, she could see that they too could see that their unofficial teammate had made the correct decision preparing a contingency plan. They would no doubt still harbor some resentment towards the longhaired teenager for a while but they would get over it eventually. Or they would not. That was their decision and not hers.

"Whatever the case, with Nimrod defeated there's still some cleanup work that needs to be done and it looks like your friend Xander could use some medical aide with that arm of his," Firebird said, taking control of the situation.

Nodding, she began helping Xander towards the ambulance that had just pulled up outside of the park while the others left with the Rangers to deal with any unintended trouble their battle with Nimrod might have had on the surrounding area. While she did not believe the damage to be too bad, it would be a negative mark against mutantkind if the New X-Men did not work to repair some of the damage they'd caused. Also if they were seen working alongside a government authorized super team, the negative sentiment would be reduced even further.

She just hoped that there would be no unforeseen consequences to their mission to Dallas or it could lead to trouble in the future.

_**Tokyo, Japan**_

_**Yoshiko Estate**_

_**Three Hours Later**_

_**Chieko's P.O.V**_

_I have to tell Hahaoya immediately!_ Chieko thought as she ran through the hallways to her mother's study, where she believed the older woman would be at this hour.

She knew that there were some among their family that found it disgraceful that she was so up to date with the ways of the human world but this would show them more than anything else how useful things like computers could be. For weeks they'd been looking for something, a man, and aside from narrowing it down to a specific region in the United States of America, they'd come no closer to her knowledge. Her mother had been visibly displeased by this, resulting in at least one of her subordinates losing his head due to her dissatisfaction with his progress. This had motivated those that remained into doubling their efforts and even contacting resources that they usually found quite distasteful to even look at, much less actually talk with. Not that she could blame them, considering what'd likely happen to them if they failed to produce a promising report a second time. Reidou had quite the temper when aroused and, even though she tried to emulate her predecessor as head of their clan, there were times when she took more after her uncle than anyone else. Now, though, those old fossils would have to deal with the fact that someone like her had found the information they sought without having to deal with all those dusty scrolls and smelly spells. She was going to LOVE it!

Turning the final corner, she could already hear the squeaky voice of her mother's chief retainer as he went over yet another report from one of their field agents. She never understood why her mother put up with that boot licking toady but, as she'd been told numerous times in the past, the midget had been with their family for a long time and was to be respected. Personally she thought that the old fool was going senile and should be put into the nearest old folks home before his bungling wound up causing them trouble. Coming to a stop outside of the door of the study, she quickly calmed herself down and went through everything she'd been taught about preparing to address the ruler of the clan. Even though she was the heir to that title, there were certain ways of behaving that she had to observe, even though she thought they were antiquated as hell. Nevertheless, it was something her mother insisted upon when there was anyone else in the room with them and so, to make sure her news was taken seriously, she'd follow these rules. Kneeling down on the floor with head bowed slightly, ,he knocked on the door before her to let those inside know that someone was there.

"Yes?" her mother asked in her usual professionally cold tone of voice.

"Hahaoya, I have discovered some information pertaining to the search that I believe you should see." She said, trying to sound as formal as possible no matter how much it chafed with her preferred way of saying things.

"Then enter, my daughter," her mother said, never once losing the manner that was expected of a ruler.

Getting to her feet, she opened the door and once again took in the room that her mother could often be found in whenever the clan leader sought answers that proved elusive. Scattered about the room were several mementos from past journeys abroad as well as tools for research both old and new. It was an important part of the estate since managing her family's holdings was no longer quite as simple as it had been in the past and, thus, more effort was required. Walking forward at a slow but urgent pace, she moved along until she reached a respectful distance from her Reidou and then prepared to elaborate on her earlier statement.

"I was exploring the internet ten minutes ago when I discovered a brief recording made by a civilian in Dallas, Texas," she said, ignoring the disapproving 'hmph' by the chief retainer. "While this may sound irrelevant, mother, it is the content of this recording that I believe you will find most interesting. May I?"

"Proceed," her mother said, getting up from her chair to join her firstborn daughter at the nearest computer.

Opening a web browser, she quickly typed in the address for the website and then input the keywords that had given her the recording in question. It didn't take her long to bring it up and once it began to play all three of them watched the events unfold on the screen. The first image to be shown was of a pink humanoid figure hovering in mid-air but the quality of the image, as well as the distance, made it difficult to discern more. The interesting part occurred next as a large dog-like creature with red eyes and a crescent moon marking on its forehead attacked Mr. Pink in mid-air using sparkling clouds beneath its feet to move about. This continued on for several minutes before two energy blasts of unknown origin began to target Mr. Pink, eventually resulting in the large dog successfully swatting Mr. Pink from the sky. The recording cut off for a moment before showing a stereotypical park that looked like all the others except for a large trench that had torn up the grass for quite a stretch. The large dog arrived soon after and began to stalk Mr. Pink. With a bark that was easily picked up by whatever device had been used, the inu youkai leapt into the air with the intent to come down on its prey with its left paw. A gasp from both her mother and the chief retainer let her know that they were shocked at what happened next as a pink blast of energy shot up from where Mr. Pink was and completely destroyed the left leg of the large dog. Looking away from the computer screen, she chose instead to observe her mother's reactions to what she was seeing since that'd let her know whether she'd hit paydirt or was going to be in trouble soon.

The leader of the clan looked to be watching the recording with unheard of focus and this alone told her the magnitude of the reaction she'd receive soon. However it wasn't until she began to see cracks in her mother's normally stoic visage that she realized that her discovery might be having more of an impact than even she had anticipated. An almost dominating longing appeared in the older woman's eyes as well as a few suppressed attempts by the clan leader's hands to reach out to the recording as if it was possible to reach right through to the point in time being displayed. When the recording finally ended, though, the stony visage and professional mannerisms that she more often associated with her mother returned.

"Jakken! Prepare my private jet for immediate departure," her mother said with unyielding authority as she strode to leave the room. "Then have our agents in America identify every person in that recording and their current places of residence."

"Yes Lady Tsukiko. The jet will be ready to take off by the time you reach the airport and the information you desire will be gathered as quickly as possible," the old toad youkai groveled.

Sometimes she wondered how the little imp still had a tongue with all of the boot licking he'd done over the years. Sure, she understood that as the chief retainer of the inu youkai clan there was a certain way he had to behave around her mother, but being a suck up and 'yes man' was overdoing it.

"Pack your things, Chieko. You will be accompanying me to the United States," said her mother as she stepped out into the hallway. "It's time for you to meet your grandfather."


	5. Decisions Made and Journey's Taken

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material contained herein. They are the rightful property of their creators and associated companies. I am making no money off of this whatsoever. I write for fun and for the enjoyment of those who like reading my work.

_**Xavier Institute For Higher Learning, Outside Salem Center, N.Y, Xander's Room (Tentative)**_

_**Four Days Later, Xander's P.O.V**_

_Three days to grow back and another day of tests to make sure that my new arm wouldn't do a one eighty on me when I least expected it, _he thought, lying back on his bed looking at his new left arm that appeared to be completely healthy. _Guess I can't fool myself any longer. I'm not human anymore. I'm not even a mutant. I'm a demon._

He knew that the others at the mansion probably thought that he was a superhuman or a mutant of some kind but he'd learned enough to be able to come to a different conclusion. No matter how many ways a mutant could apply their power, they usually only had one or two powers, a primary and a secondary mutation, and that was it. So far, to his recollection, he had exhibited no less than four separate powers that were completely unrelated to one another. He had a superhuman body that gave him superior strength, speed, agility and extra sharp senses of sight, touch, taste, hearing and an acute sense of smell. Those were all abilities that could be tied into one enhanced physical body package. Then he had the ability to apparently produce a spray of corrosive, and perhaps toxic, green mist that could eat through organic tissue like it was melting slush. Then, while he didn't remember a whole lot of it, there was the apparent ability to turn into a King Kong-sized demonic canine. Considering the difference in mass between the two, this was a fairly major power. Lastly, he apparently could fly by somehow generating sparkly clouds that let him walk, run and jump on air. Those were far too many powers for them to be x-gene mutations although some apparently thought that both the flying and the super speed/strength could be telekinetic in nature.

He personally didn't think so.

If his hypothesis was right, if he was a demon now, then he needed answers and he needed them quicker than he'd get them if he stayed here at the Institute. Frost and Summers had already contacted the various mystics that the X-Men knew but apparently half of them were already busy with end of the world situations of their own while the others specialized in areas that wouldn't help. While they had advised him to wait until those specialists became available, he didn't want to go that long without knowing what he'd been changed into and if he could be changed back. It wasn't that he didn't like these powers or anything, they were cool and let him help out a lot better than he could before, but he hadn't been given any say in getting them. Plus it did not make him feel good to suddenly be the very thing he and the gang back home fought against to keep the world spinning. He wasn't so prejudiced to think that all demons were evil and should be put down, he'd seen enough evidence to the contrary to disprove that bigoted theory, but it made him worry about the possible strings attached to this power up. If there was one thing that G-Man had taught them during their study sessions to take down the latest big bad, it was that all magic came with a price tag. Whatever mojo was used to change him into what he was now would have to have had a serious price tag attached to it and there was no guarantee that he wouldn't be the one paying up when the check arrived.

He needed answers sooner rather than later.

That meant he had to put in a call to Giles and see if the two biggest brains he knew could figure out what the heck was going on with him. The problem with that idea, though, was that he'd be giving the headmaster and headmistress of the school a confirmation of who he was rather than a suspicion. After all, while his new form did bear **some** resemblance to how he looked when he was one hundred percent human, that was about it. His biology was so different, they wouldn't be able to do a DNA match and his mind was apparently difficult to read telepathically, so they couldn't really dive into his head for confirmation either. As far as they knew, he was just some white-haired pretty boy who bore a resemblance to Alexander LaVelle Harris claiming to be that same human child of Tony and Jessica Harris. If he started contacting the friends of Xander Harris, started speaking to them like he was Xander Harris, then they might think that he really was Xander Harris. Why was this a bad thing? While he was growing to trust some of the faculty at the Institute, there were some that he wouldn't trust with a puppy, much less with the Scooby gang back home. Miss Frost was the first one to come to mind, given how much of an arrogant bitch she was and how she seemed to have the subconscious desire to turn the students, be they male or female, into her own little mini-me army. There were others but she was definitely at the top of the list of people he didn't like nor particularly trust and, when you add on the O.N.E people who were keeping an extra close eye on him, he probably couldn't sneeze without someone monitoring it.

He supposed he could try and get out of the Institute and use a payphone or something but he pretty much figured that O.N.E would have one of their agents shadow him the entire time he was outside the Institute. In the past four days, he'd been approached both by members of O.N.E and Tony Stark's Fifty State Initiative to sign up officially with them. Considering the show he put on fighting Nimrod, it wasn't all that much of a surprise that they'd want a powerhouse like him on the payroll, or at least where they had some measure of control over him. Too bad for them that he wasn't interested in becoming a government stooge or someone's attack dog. It was bad enough that Val Cooper made an entry for him in the Super Power Registration Act database without his permission but, unlike most of the world, he didn't think the SPRA was a good idea. While he didn't like what the New Warriors did in Stamford, didn't like how they turned being a superhero into a cash cow, he didn't think putting every powered individual into a database was the right way to handle things. It'd just make things too tempting for the acronym agencies of the U.S.A when it came to the idea of using the super powered people as soldiers for overseas operations or having them pull Gestapo crap at home. He was sure Stark or whomever they sent to recruit him would say that the database of names and secret identities is completely secure with only select people having access.

_I might be new to this whole super hero stuff but even I know that words like 'secure' and 'unreachable' are relative terms,_ he thought as he got up from his bed. _One day it's secure and the next some super hero or super villain team prove otherwise making it only sort of invincible._

He was pretty sure that it was only a matter of time before something caused the entire Act to blow up in everyone's faces and he didn't want to be there when it went POP. It was about then that he hit on an idea but the problem was how to get the ball rolling without letting any of the untrustworthy people catch on. Shaking his head, he decided he might as well go with the blunt approach even though he was pretty sure he'd have to do some creative phrasing. Leaving his room, he kept his walking casual and the rest of his body unchanged from when he was on the bed since he knew there were new security cameras put everywhere after Stryker attacked. Walking through the hallways of the female dorms, he waited until he was right outside of their room and then took a deep sniff to see if they were still there or had gone someplace. While he was still a bit hit or miss when it came to deciphering what his nose had to tell him, he was pretty sure that the ones he was after were still in their room. Without breaking stride, he continued down the hallway until he came to one of the many benches that were spread out throughout the mansion and sat down. Plucking a random magazine from the table next to it, he prepared to initiate contact, hoping all the while that while they might look like that bitch quite a bit that they hadn't inherited her greater-than-thou-art personality.

_If you ladies aren't doing anything, would you mind doing me a favor?_ He asked, deciding that trying to sugercoat things would probably just be insulting their intelligence.

He waited a few minutes for them to reply or at least give some sign that they'd intercepted his thought but, after five minutes of nothing, he decided he had to try again.

_Look! I know I'm a bit new at this whole thought broadcasting thing but could one of you at least respond so I know I'm getting through? _He thought with a bit more effort in the direction he wanted his message to go in.

Again he was met with silence but, given how slick in the telepathic department these three women were supposed to be, he was fairly certain that they were picking up his thoughts.

They were just ignoring him.

_Let's see them ignore __**this**__!_ He thought before he began to mentally sing, _THIS IS THE SONG THAT DOESN'T END! YES IT GOES ON AND ON MY FRIENDS! SOMEBODY STARTED SINGING IT NOT KNOWING WHAT IT WAS AND THEY'LL KEEP ON SINGING IT JUST BECAUSE __**THIS IS THE SONG THAT DOESN'T END!**__ YES IT GOES ON AND ON—_

_ENOUGH! Now what do you want, Xander? _Came the thoughts of three ladies unified as one. _It better be something important or we're going to implant a scene of what Marilyn Manson does in the shower in __**your**__ head!_

The mental shudder **that** threat produced was enough to make him never want to get these ladies mad at him. _Long story short, I want to make a call home to ask a friend to do some research for me. Thing is, I don't trust the O.N.E idiots, nor do I trust Ms. Frost not to eavesdrop somehow._ He thought as honestly and politely as possible. _I sort of want to keep the info they have on me to a minimum so I was hoping that when I gave the word you could mess with the perceptions of the people on monitoring duty until the call is done. I'll make it quick. No more than ten minutes, tops._

_What about the electronics? We might be able to alter their minds so that they won't have any memory of the call but their machines are beyond our reach. _Said the Three-In-One mental voice of the Stepford Cuckoos in a reasonable tone of voice.

_Got that covered. I plan to ask Nori to try out a new trick of hers and __**accidently**__ knock the monitoring equipment offline._ He thought in response as he mentally showed them what would happen. _Yeah, they have backups but it'll take them a while to get them online and hopefully by then I'll be done with my call and no one will be the wiser._

_What do we get out of this?_

That was the stumper question he'd hoped they wouldn't ask until later on because, when you got right down to it, he didn't have a whole lot to offer. He had some money left over in his bank account that was supposed to fund his trip back to Sunnydale but, considering whom he was talking to, paying the girls off wouldn't work. He didn't have a whole lot of possessions that might interest three beautiful ladies who were the uncrowned princesses of the Institute. In the end he had only one option.

_What do you want?_

He could almost hear them telepathically speaking to each other but it was too much like muffled mutterings for him to make anything out. Nevertheless, he believed, as most men did, that when more than one female starts taking in secret, it never lead to something good for any male within the blast radius.

_A date. The four of us,_ thought the Stepford Cuckoos with a bit of smugness in their thoughts. _We know you don't have much money but we also know you can cook from your midnight meal with Laura. Set up a romantic location and cook some Italian food for the four of us. Promise to do that and we'll help._

Shock was pretty much the dominant feeling inside his mind at the moment.

_Of all the things you could've asked for, why that?_

_You're pretty big news on the campus at the moment; reviving the dead, restoring their powers, wiping the floor with Stryker's men and taking it to Nimrod._ _You're pretty much the most popular guy in the Institute right now, a hero, and since you're single that makes you a hot commodity in the girls' dorm wing._

This did little to help clear up the shock that was bouncing from one end of his body to the other and it made him slip up a little by asking the first question that popped into his head.

_And what do you girls think?_

_Well, you're pretty good looking with all that snow white hair and you're arguably the most powerful guy our age at the Institute, _they thought in reply to his inquiry. _The fact that you don't let that power go to your head like Keller is a definite plus and, to be honest, the fact that you're so difficult to get a read on gives you an air of mystery that we like._

_And the reason why all three of you are willing to go make it a dinner for four situation instead of dinner for two is…?_

_Because of the nature of our powers, it'd be impossible to keep what happened a secret from one another and we share so much already it doesn't make sense to waste time trying._ They thought to him in reply to his inquiry. _In any case, you should be thanking us for the chance to date all of us at once. After all, isn't it every guy's dream to be dating three beautiful, sexy and identical young women?_

He'd be lying if he said that the idea of having three beautiful blondes as dates didn't do something for him but he also had a feeling that the real reason they were proposing this was to increase their social standing within the Institute.

_That is a side benefit but, like we said, you have many desirable traits and if we like this date, we just might be willing to move on to something a little more serious. _They thought at him before developing a serious tone to their thoughts. _So what'll it be, Xander? Is it a deal?_

While his inner guy sensor told him not to take their response at face value, he really did need their help and, with a little luck, it would just take that one date to convince them he wasn't their soulmate.

_Deal. I'm going to go fill in Nori,_ he said before putting down the magazine he'd been pretending to read. _Keep your brains open and wait for my signal before you begin._

_Of course._ They thought before breaking the connection.

With that done he left the girl's dorm area and followed the ever-so-recognizable scent that Surge gave off. There were numerous scents in the air but her powers gave her smell a certain…charge to it that he could find easily in the miasma of scents and follow it to its source. Keeping his movements casual, he walked by student after student and, because of what the Cuckoos had said earlier, he was now noticing how the female students' eyes lingered on him for quite a bit before moving on. Some of the guys were giving him 'man I am so jealous of him' or 'I hate his guts' looks as well and, for once, it wasn't because he was a geek or freak. Apparently his recent exploits had earned him some fame among the student body and it was a mixed bag of sentiments indeed. Pushing these thoughts aside as he spotted the familiar electric blue color of hair at the end of the hall, it wasn't a surprise that she was talking with Prodigy about something. Those two were a couple if he ever saw one and, when Julian wasn't being an ass, it was kind of cute to see.

"Hey, Nori! Can I speak to you for a second?"

"Sure Xander. I'll see you later, David." Nori said before she and her sort of boyfriend went their separate ways. "What's up?"

"I sorta need your help with something," he said lowering his voice to a whisper. "It's kinda hush-hush."

Interest on her face, she moved closer to him so that they could whisper at their quietest, so as to reduce the odds that someone might overhear them. A definite must considering the variety of mutant powers that existed at the Institute.

"I plan on making a call and I don't want those O.N.E jokers or anyone else for that matter listening in," he explained while covertly keeping an eye out for someone taking interest in their talking "I've got some help dealing with the human side of the equation but I need your help with the technological side of things. When I give you the word, I need you to mess with their equipment for me. Both the O.N.E equipment and the X-Men gear."

"What! Why?" Nori asked, obviously not understanding why the X-Men's gear needed to be messed with as well.

"Let's just say that I don't trust some members of the faculty to mind their own business and I'd prefer some secrets of mine to stay secrets. So, will you do it?"

It was clear from the look on the Asian woman's face that she was torn between wanting to do a friend a favor and knowing that she'd get in all kinds of trouble for it afterwards. In the end the grin on her face told him what her response would be.

"Alright, but after this we're even." Nori said with a smile of support, "So when are you going to call someone?"

"Now, unless you got something planned. Is that alright?"

Nodding her head, they began heading for the nearest location with a phone in it. To keep up the appearance of casual hanging out, he began asking her about her classes and if anything interesting had happened at work. When she asked questions, she thankfully kept it to something typical teenagers talked about: movies, music, sports and TV shows. Surprise of surprises, he actually found out that she was a fellow lover of sci-fi movies and that made talking between them a little easier to bear. Once they were at the phone, though, he waited until he started to dial Giles' apartment before giving the nod to Nori to do her thing.

_Time to mess with some heads, Cuckoos!_ He thought at a normal volume so as not to attract Miss Frost's attention.

Listening to the phone ring, he hoped that Giles was at his apartment rather than out otherwise he was going to have to make more deals for some private time on the phone. Fortunately, after the sixth ring, someone on the other end picked up and he was relieved that he wouldn't have to make any more deals.

"Giles residence," G-Man said with his usual proper British tone.

"Hey, G-Man! How are things going post graduation?"

"Rather pleasantly until now," Giles replied with some irritation at the use of the 'infernal nickname'. "I trust your road trip is going smoothly as well."

"Well…ya see…that's the thing Giles," he said trying to think of a way to phrase things that wouldn't cause the older man to blow a fuse. "I was in New York and kinda…I kinda stuck my foot in the sort of thing we dealt with for the past three years. I stepped in it **big time!**"

"Dear lord," Giles muttered on the other hand while he no doubt cleaned his glasses. "What precisely did you stumble into this time?"

"Well I sort of did a patrol and bumped into this girl who looked like she could use a crash course in creepy crawlies. Figured that telling her would keep her from getting killed," he explained trying to make it sound like what happened was perfectly logical. "It went along fine for about a month before I heard from some guy who had to be a relative of Willy's that we'd upset some of the organized locals. I guess they didn't like being used as punching bags."

"Bloody hell! While I applaud informing an innocent of the lesser known aspects of the world, it was foolish of you to instruct without considering the consequences." Giles said, sounding both worried and exasperated with the young man he was speaking with. "I trust that these 'upset locals' are the reason for your call?"

"Not quite. I sorta thought it might be a good idea to make the 'upset locals' upset at someone else and that's where it got a bit complicated," he replied, knowing that he would an unpleasant experience the next time he saw Giles. "Apparently someone else had similar thoughts and didn't want any loose ends. THAT is when the shit hit the fan. Next thing I know I get put through a more thorough and apparently permanent version of the Halloween hosted by your best bud, Ethan Rayne."

For the next twenty seconds he learned the hard way just how many British swear words could be spoken quickly yet easily enough to be understand by someone not fluent in Willow babble.

_Xander. You have two more minutes before O.N.E and Dr. McCoy manage to get electronic surveillance back online._ came the thoughts of the three Stepford Cuckoos. _We suggest you terminate the call well before then._

"Look! Giles! I know this isn't what you want to hear but I'm kinda on a time limit. I've got both Big Brother and Big Sister working to get their equipment back online as we speak." he said, mentally trying to keep track of how much time he had left. "I need you to look up a name. I don't know if it is an it, a her or a him but I think it's connected to whatever I am now. The name is Sesshomaru and I think you might want to look in the Asian section of your stuff."

"Xander, I cannot begin to understand your present… circumstances,however you must understand how difficult it is to research anything with only a name and your vague descriptions," Giles said, sounding more professional with the mention of Big Brother and Big Sister. "I suggest that you come back to Sunnydale as swiftly as possible and allow me to make a more in person inspection of the changes."

"That… could be a tad difficult, Giles. I've earned a bit of notoriety with Big Brother and Big Sister. I could be followed."

"We'll take the appropriate precautions and I have a few tricks up my sleeve," Giles said mirroring the tension he himself was feeling.

"Fine. I'll call when I'm an hour away. See ya!" With the call over, he casually walked away from the phone and headed for the cafeteria for something to eat.

_Thanks for the help, ladies,_ he thought at the Cuckoos with a little uncertainty. _You got a date and time in mind for the 'date'?_

_We'll let you know._ They thought before severing the telepathic connection.

He just got the warm fuzzies all over thinking about what they meant by 'letting him know'.

_**Ms. Frosts' Office, Five Minutes Later, Emma Frost's P.O.V**_

Waiting quietly behind her desk, she knew precisely where young Alexander was and how long it would be before he would walk through her door.

It had been quite the good attempt at a covert conversation and, had she not been monitoring him through the security cameras installed throughout the campus, it might have gone by unnoticed. However she had noticed his behavior and, being something of an expert in body language, she had easily been able to catch the signs that he was up to something. From there it was simply a matter of narrowing down the number of accomplices and how they might have been useful to him. She already knew what Surge's purpose had been, disruption of electronic surveillance of phone calls, and she had a feeling that her girls were the ones that took care of the human half of the equation. She'd been contacted by Val Cooper concerning the possibility of one of the students being responsible for causing her agents to see Barney episodes on their monitors. She had been sorely tempted to laugh at that image but had managed, as always, to keep her voice as professional as it always was when dealing with O.N.E officials. She was fairly certain she had not heard the last from the baseline human but then it was never the last time with people who claimed 'we are here to help you'. Nevertheless, she planned on speaking with her girls after this meeting with Alexander and hoping that the young Cuckoos would clarify their role in matters. Knowing Phoebe, Mindee and Celeste, they would not have done the young man a favor without it somehow benefiting them. Considering the exotic swordsman's rising fame among the students of the Institute, it was entirely possible that they wished to take advantage of that rising popularity. A smart move but also an unnecessary one, considering their relationship with her and the instances where they aided the X-Men. While not every student wanted to become an X-Man upon graduation, there were enough boys and girls who read comic books that the desire to become a superhero was strong in them.

Seeing the door open to admit the most popular boy in the Institute, she decided to shelve her scenario contemplations of the girls for the time being. She would figure out what their angle was later and, if it somehow involved romantic inclinations towards young Alexander LaVelle Harris, then she would see what she could do to help those inclinations along to a beneficial conclusion.

"You asked to see me, Miss Frost?" Alexander asked with a moderate level of politeness.

"Yes I did, Alexander. I understand that you're in need of transportation to California and are in something of a rush, so I've taken the liberty of arranging for Husk to take you to Sunnydale in an X-jet." She said as though it were perfectly normal for her to know what he was planning. "I've informed Ms. Cooper that you are going on a fact finding mission concerning one of the students at the Institute as part of your position as a **reserve** New X-Men member."

The look of complete surprise mixed with a little irritation was **priceless** and definitely something that she would be committing to memory for future situations where the two of them came into conflict with one another.

"I must commend you on your first attempt at covert communications. With a little instruction on the parts of Bishop and Wolverine, I'd wager that you could have an hour long conversation with Majestrix Lilandra without anyone being the wiser," she said as he stood there no doubt contemplating how he could do better and deliver her some payback at the same time. "However you failed to take into account the security cameras. With enough footage, a skilled reader of lips and body language could probably write a report on everything you said and did, as well as what you were probably thinking at the time."

She almost heard a growl escape him and decided that at this point it might be to her benefit to try and soothe that no doubt bruised ego. The two of them were already butting heads enough when it came to X-23 and, if she truly wanted him to sign on officially as a member of the New X-Men, it would be best if they could at least behave professionally towards each other.

"No need to be too offended, Alexander. The people manning the security cameras have years of experience so it is no surprise that they managed to find a way past your precautions. Besides, I do not believe that covert activity is your forte," she said as she got up from her comfortable leather chair and approached him. "No, I believe that you're more suited to being on the front lines of a struggle, either leading a team or lending them your strength, rather than toiling away in secrecy."

"I'm not in it for the recognition, Miss Frost," he said a bit roughly as his body tensed up a bit. "I fight because it's the right thing to do and… and because I made a promise to someone."

"There's nothing wrong with receiving some praise for your accomplishments or taking advantage of the rewards that come with a job well done, Alexander. Indeed, some people might be offended if their attempts to show their gratitude were rejected out of hand," she said, trying to tweak the young man's sense of honor. "While I commend your modesty, you should really learn to take pride in your work and not be afraid of standing tall when walking amongst others. While some of the more irritable people might see this as a sign of arrogance, it is more likely that they're just jealous of what you can do and the gap that exists between the two of you."

Silence was the only response she got to her statement but a surface perusal of his mind told her that she had managed to rock the foundations of his foolish White Knight complex, even if it was only a tiny bit. As the saying went 'all it takes is a single pebble to start an avalanche' and she was sure that, with a few carefully orchestrated events, she could change him into something more befitting his strength and skills.

"In any case, you can leave for California anytime you please. I put Paige on twenty-four hour notice as your pilot," she said as she withdrew to her desk to allow the young man some space. "If you choose to wait any longer than that, please inform me. I will make new arrangements."

"I'll be ready to go in an hour," Alexander said doing his best to make his face an unreadable mask. "Have her ready for lift off by then."

"Consider it done," she said, mentally notifying Husk of the departure time. "Do you know how long you will be in Sunnydale?"

She saw him wince at that question. No doubt he was uncomfortable about her knowing so much. Well he would simply have to get used to it. In a school where mutant powers vary from person to person, privacy was a relative issue and usually dependent on the ethics of the individual.

"It'll depend on whether or not Giles has the right books or if he has to ask around," Alexander replied, dropping all attempts to censor what he told her. "Knowledge on the supernatural isn't exactly easy to come by. You have to sort through the crap to get at the really reliable info."

"Very well, then. I look forward to your return to the Institute and I'm sure Celeste, Phoebe and Mindee will as well," she said, unable to suppress the small grin caused by the signs of teenage embarrassment on his face.

This pretty much confirmed that the girls had made romance the cost of their services earlier and, as such, she would be sure to rework their class schedules to give them ample time to prepare. With a little luck, they would be swept off their feet by Alexander and the boy would forget whatever lust he might have for X-23 in favor of three safer bets. Seeing the pressure on the boy's face reach critical levels, she decided to show him some mercy and gave him the universal sign that he could leave.

Watching him as he left, she couldn't help but wonder if this might be the last time she'd see him as he was. She knew that he wanted to be human again, just like she knew that some of the students would be interested in a way to no longer be mutants, and if he managed to find a way through this Giles person then it would be a serious loss for them all. The lives he'd saved, the mutants whose powers he restored and the foes he'd defeated had had a profound effect on the students as well as some of the faculty. She could only imagine how different things would have been if he hadn't been at the attack on the bus or Stryker's assault on the Institute. Given the surprise nature of the former and the sheer number of enemies employed in the latter, she had a feeling that there would be a great many more graves with children in them than there were now. With the power he possessed, many had come to look at him as a potential role model and she knew that some of the younger girls just starting to notice boys were developing crushes on him. It wasn't quite at the stalking stage left but she had caught a few girls almost walking into walls when he walked by them. Still, he was not irreplaceable and, if it turned out that he was able to become human once again, then at the very least she would be sure he left a phone number where he could be reached. While the X-Men were no strangers to dealing with supernatural or demonic threats, it would be nice to have a source they could tap that wasn't always out of reach.

With a deep breath, she put all thoughts of Alexander out of her mind and directed her thoughts towards devising a way to remove X-23 from the Institute without making enemies of her New X-Men teammates. So far it was no secret that those students who'd had Dani Moonstar as a faculty advisor didn't particularly like her but she also knew that some of her own Hellions would be cross with her if she tried to force X-23 out. Oh, they'd eventually get over it, but it would produce bothersome friction between those that saw things her way and those that clung to naïve optimism like Scott did.

_One day they'll learn that such childish optimism can be dangerous and sometimes lethal if allowed to run unchecked,_ she thought as she began looking at the paperwork she had to do today. _Then again, the same thing could be said for bothersome paperwork._

_**Xavier Institute, Boys Dorm Wing, Xander's Room (tentative), Forty-Five Minutes Later**_

_**Xander's P.O.V**_

_Interfering, manipulative, self-centered BITCH!_ Xander thought as he put only the essentials into his bag. _HELL! She makes Queen C at her worst look like Kendra!_

Still, she had a point with how he hadn't taken the security cameras into account. He'd treated them like they were ordinary systems that could be taken out by some selective application of electricity, a la Surge. However he kept forgetting that both the O.N.E and the X-Men had access to tech that was decades ahead of anything available on the open market and a few electrons wouldn't be too much trouble for them. Add to that the whole body/lip reading bit and he felt like an idiot for thinking that a telepathy/electric combo would be enough to keep his conversation with Giles private. Even with the memories he had from his soldier possession and the paranoia that living in Sunnydale, he was woefully underprepared for any sort of covert action. His soldier memories were from Vietnam rather than from something more recent, so the same could be said for his tactics in that they were years, decades out of date. Even the best soldier of his or her time would have problems trying to compete with those people outfitted with the latest in technology and military training. Still, he hoped that the fact that he hadn't heard word one from O.N.E about his little covert operation meant that Frost would at least keep things in house. Yeah… she probably would, considering that it involved 'her girls' and the leader of the New X-Men. She still pissed him off, though, and he highly doubted that they'd ever be able to speak on friendly terms with each other.

"You're leaving?" Came a voice that while familiar still almost made him yelp in a most unmanly fashion due to the sheer unexpected nature of it all.

Turning around, he saw that the person who had so rudely scared the living shit out of him was none other than Laura, clad in her usual tight leather pants and leather halter top. That had been another odd thing that had popped up since they'd returned from their mission to defeat Nimrod and rescue of the X-man, Forge. While he didn't always see her, he was certain that she had been stalking him ever since they'd returned to the mansion. Sometimes it was only a brief moment when he caught her scent while other times he was able to see a shadow that fit her unique figure perfectly but he'd caught her often enough to know it was stalking. In a way it both touched him and, at the same time, creeped him out that she was following him around like a target that her ex-bosses The Facility wanted kept under surveillance. He had a theory of what was bouncing around in that head of hers: she was experiencing something involving him that she had never gone through before and was curious. Whether this curiosity stemmed simply from the desire to quantify the experience in terms she was familiar with or because she was simply curious for curiosity's sake, he didn't know. Personally he would be glad if it were the latter rather than the former because it would mean that her thoughts and wants were moving outside of confines of what an agent would need to know or want to know.

It meant she was taking a step towards being more human and less the weapon that The Facility had wanted her to be for the entirety of her life.

"Just for a little while," he replied not wanting to make it sound like he was going forever. "I need to ask a friend of mine some questions and they aren't the sort of questions you ask over the phone. I'm not sure when I'll be back but I promise I'll come back A.S.A.P."

She seemed to consider this statement, no doubt internally debating the likelihood that he'd come back, and when he looked into her eyes next, he knew he had just acquired some company for his trip.

"I will come with you," Laura said without any doubt or hesitation.

"Are you sure?" he asked, knowing that she probably had a more logical reason than an emotional one.

"Yes. I… want to see your home." She said, looking a bit uncomfortable when she finished speaking.

That was all he needed to hear to know that the reason for her wanting to come along with him was more human curiosity than a weapon's need for information. He couldn't help but smile at this development but, since the signs of discomfort went up and then, like an iron gate slamming shut, her stone faced 'femme fatale' look took her face over. It was a reflex action on her part, a defense against emotions and thoughts she knew nothing about, and he was sure that once she got used to her more human side, her femme fatale look wouldn't appear anywhere near as often. Until then, though, he'd have to be careful to only inspire as much humanity in her as she was capable of handling at the time or he was sure he'd scare her off back into her weapon mentality.

"Sure. I'm heading out in about fifteen minutes, though, so just pack up the essentials and then meet me in the hanger," he said with an encouraging smile. "If we need anything more, we can just buy it there."

Nodding once, she turned and left, presumably for the room she shared with Dust, and he resumed packing the essentials for his trip. Obviously the get up and the weapons he'd found on his person after waking up in the burning bar would have to come along since Giles'd probably want to examine them. One of the things he wanted to know about was how the outfit had somehow managed to not only clean itself but also repair the damage that Nimrod had done to it. Looking at it now, he'd never guess that the left sleeve had been burned away, leaving only blood and blackened fabric in its place. However it only added another level of weirdness to the whole thing that not only was he now a demon but that his clothes were probably demonic in nature as well. He just hoped that once Giles had some time to take a metaphorical walk through his dusty books that the craziness that his life had been filled with as of late would go away. Once he had a better idea of what had been done to him, what he had become, then perhaps he could decide on where he wanted his life to go from here. A large part of him still wanted to become human again but another part of him, a growing part, wanted to keep the powers that would allow him to do so much good. There was also the issue of whether or not to remain here at the Institute or resume his position as a member of the Scooby gang as a fellow defender of the Hellmouth. In the end it all came down to two questions: Where was he needed most and What would his choice do to those he cared about.

Given what he had learned since coming to the Institute, the life a mutant was one full of trouble with only a few spots of happiness mixed in to make bearable. Not to say that the life of a Scooby was peaceful and free of trouble but, if he had to decide which one was the more dangerous, he'd have to say the life of a mutant. Where mutants sometimes had the whole world against them, the Scoobies, at most, had only the odd gang of demons and maybe a single big bad to worry about each year. It was pretty fortunate that the demons of the world weren't the sort to try and put together an organized assault on the Hellmouth or anything like that. If enough of them came together with a good plan for taking over Sunnydale, there'd be precious little that the Scoobies could do to stop them. Fortunately, whether it was their greed, their pride or just a case of anti-socialism, demons rarely worked well together and, the few times they did come together, either fear or as a way to further their own agendas. As such, a solid and reliable threat rarely formed that the Scoobies needed to face, leaving only small groups of foes that could be managed with a little planning and some nick of time luck. Would that last forever? He didn't know but he hoped it would. If, however, some problem arose and they needed help, then he would be the first to provide it. With that train of thought, he guessed that he had already made his choice and just needed a way to bring it out into the open so he could accept it. He would certainly miss Sunnydale and being away from his friends, but he would do everything he could to be there for them on all the important days, like birthdays and holidays. He would make sure that he was never more than a phone call or letter away and, with the flight capabilities of the X-jets, he could be in Sunnydale in less than twelve hours if necessary. It would be hard, perhaps even painful, in the beginning but that was life and change was a part of growing up.

Slinging his bag over his shoulder, he began to make his way down to the hanger where Husk and Laura would be waiting for him. He didn't know how long it'd take for them to get from the east coast to the west coast but he imagined it wouldn't take much longer than the trip to Dallas. Once they landed, he'd head for Giles' apartment or, if it was late at night, he'd head for the most likely cemetery in order to hook up with the gang. He'd probably have to do some ducking and defense work in the beginning since Buffy was fond of the 'slay first, ask questions later… maybe' approach to patrol but he was confident that eventually he'd figure out some way to tell them the truth. Once they were convinced of that truth then they could get down to business and figure out who or what Sesshomaru was and how it all was connected with his current condition. Information is ammunition and he intended to have enough ammo backing him up to flatten anyone and anything that got in his way.

When he got to the hanger, found three things that he had neither anticipated, nor thought would help smooth things over once he arrived in Sunnydale: Dust, Mercury, and Hellion.

All three of them, dressed in civilian clothes with bags nearby them as though they were going on a trip somewhere. He didn't like the direction things were heading in.

"Hey guys! What's up?"

"We heard that you were heading out on a trip to California and decided to hitch a ride," Cessily said casually but with a smile that told him his suspicions were accurate.

"Where ya goin'?"

"Oh, just a little out of the way town I'd heard about from a classmate," Hellion said with his infuriatingly smug smile at full powe., "It's not very well known but I've heard it's never boring there."

"Plus we hear that there're people there that we owe a debt or two to so we'd like to pay them back before the interest piles too high." Cessily added with mirth in her eyes at the look of exasperation he couldn't help but allow form on his face.

Dust was the only one who had the good grace to stay quiet and…huh…was that a blush he saw peeking through the eye slot of her outfit?

He had a feeling he didn't want to know.

Looking to Husk he asked, "I assume you at least **tried** to tell them they should stay put?"

"Nope. I checked with Ms. Frost and she okayed it," Husk replied, sounding clueless as to why the three additional passengers should stick behind.

_Frost probably just wants more info on my hometown and figures that I'm more likely to take people I know than some random blonde girl._ He thought with a grimace as he detected The Bitch's hand in this. _Not that this Husk isn't a total hottie but she's probably a chaperone to make sure I don't get into any trouble that'll bring trouble down on the Institute._

For a moment he considered arguing his case and trying to persuade Dust, Mercury and Hellion that coming to Sunnydale was a bad idea but he knew it'd be more trouble than it was worth. While he thought Hellion was a grade A jerk of the worst kind, Cessily and Sooraya struck him as being pretty okay people. So if he had to deal with a jackass like Julian while enjoying the company of Laura, Husk, Sooraya and Mercury, he supposed that he had only one choice.

"Fine, but when we hit Sunnydale you follow my lead," he said as he started walking for the boarding ramp of the X-jet. "I don't know what you've been told about my hometown but I'd rather not test Sunnydale Denial Syndrome's limits with a flashy display of mutant powers just yet."

"Sunnydale Denial Syndrome?" Cessily asked with curiosity.

"It's what my friends called the phenomena where people in my hometown rationalize away the bizarre, the paranormal and the demonic as something your average person would be more like to accept. It's helped the people of Sunnydale rationalize away vampire attacks, the swim team turning into creatures from the Black Lagoon and a prehistoric parasite infestation. However I think a girl made of liquid mercury, a guy who can toss cars with his mind, a young woman who can double as her own private beach and someone who can shed her skin whenever she wants is going to a bit easier for them to accept."

"That won't be a problem. Unless a serious situation pops up in your hometown, most of us can blend in with the crowd easily enough." Paige Guthrie said following him up the ramp before heading to the pilot's chair. "As for Cessily, I'm sure we can avoid any trouble your neighbors stir up if they have a problem with her appearance."

"Then let's get going," he said, sitting down right behind her as the others took their seats. "The sooner we leave the bigger lead we'll have on Mr. Murphy and my family's own personal brand of luck."

Anyone else thinking that Xander shouldn't have tempted fate like that?

Yeah, me too.

_**Inside the X-Jet, En Route to Sunnydale, California, Two Hours Later, Cessily's P.O.V**_

"So what's Sunnydale like, Xander?" Cessily asked as she glanced out the window as the plane went along at half speed.

"Well, it's basically your typical American town on the surface," Xander replied, lounging in his chair, trying to relax. "Beneath that is what we call the Hellmouth. It's basically a spot where the barriers between our world and a hell dimension are particularly thin. Not thin enough to let demons come into our world but enough that demonic energy flows out of it, attracting all sorts of demons that are already here."

"If it's such a demon magnet then why do people live there?" Hellion asked, sounding only partially interested in the answer. "For that matter why haven't the Avengers or some other superhero done something about it?"

"Could be because the Mayor of the town was a hundred year old warlock that founded the town for demons to feed on so he could become a pure demon," he replied as though he was discussing the weather. "Fortunately he was only magically protected until after he became a pure demon and then a couple barrels of homemade explosives going boom took care of him."

"How many is a couple of barrels?" Paige asked, briefly glancing over her shoulder before returning her eyes to the sky ahead.

"Oh, just about enough to turn my high school into a smoldering pile of rubble." He said offhand, waiting for them to drop their jaws and gape.

"YOU BLEW UP YOUR SCHOOL!" She exclaimed in surprise that was mirrored on the faces of all but Laura.

"Well, I kinda had to considering that it took a volcanic eruption to kill off the last demon of the breed Wilkins turned into," he said with a bit of defense before developing a sinister grin. "Besides, it's the dream of every teenager to blow up their own school! It sure was mine! Heheheheheheh!"

She had to chuckle a bit at that considering that, before she came to the Institute, she pretty much had the same thought about her school on more than one occasion, usually right after history class with Mr. Ferguson. That man had been ruthless to students that failed to answer one of his questions perfectly and she knew of at least two classmates that had had F's on their papers for the most ridiculous of reasons. Yet, whenever the students attempt to complain to other teachers, the man's blasted reputation for excellence and his seniority at the school kept him free from all ridicule or punishment.

"Could you perhaps tell us more about what we should expect in your home town, Xander?" Dust asked with an odd catch in her voice that was quite out of place.

"Sure, but just so you know I'm not the big expert on the things that go bump in the night." Xander said, turning to face the Muslim girl. "I can tell you a couple of stories about what me and my friends had thrown at us but the best advice I can give you is expect the unexpected."

With that the unofficial member of the New X-Men began to tell them stories that almost sounded too bizarre to believe. Considering what she'd read in the X-Files back at the Institute, that was really saying something, but she honestly was amazed that Xander and his friends had managed to beat these enemies back with only the bare essentials. Master Vampires, witches, bug demons posing as teachers, demons trapped in computers and turning into their Halloween costumes due to some spell were just a few of the things Xander had been through since learning the truth. Some of the stories though made her glad that liquid mercury couldn't blush because some of the images that her mind was coming up with were definitely higher up than PG-13. After all, as soon as she heard the words 'join' and 'swim team', an image of Xander in a speedo and a swim cap appeared in her mind, making her wonder if she should inquire about taking a side trip to the beach while they were in Sunnydale. While swimming wasn't quite as enjoyable now that she was made of liquid mercury, she was still able to find other ways to make it a… **worthwhile** experience for her.

The muscled **scenery,** for example, was usually quite interesting.

She was sure that she could convince everyone else to go along with this plan with the exception of Sooraya, whose beliefs and customs wouldn't permit her to partake in such an activity. Still, at the very least she could count on the others to back her idea and she was sure that Dust could find something to occupy her time.

If the beach, of course, was somehow voted out, she was sure there'd be other chances for her to indulge in her teenage tendencies and Lord knew that she'd had precious few chances to do that since her mutation had kicked in. Whereas before, when she'd just been your average teenager, she'd have been able to go walk about or go swimming without a problem, she now had eyes on her almost everywhere she went. Looking like the T-1000's younger sister had pretty much ruined her life and, while she'd found a surrogate family for herself at the Institute, the mirror served to remind her all too well of what she'd lost. She was no longer human and, as such, didn't require food or drink in order to sustain herself. Sleep was also more or less optional since she didn't get tired the way the others did but was advised to get as much as she could due to the psychological need for it. If one did not sleep then one could not process the information the senses took in during the day. Going for too long without sleep could affect a person's behavior as well as their ability to think, according to what Ms. Frost had told her once. Considering how all-nighters during high school back home had affected her the next day, she knew that going without it could turn a nice person into a real bitch if they weren't careful. Nevertheless, as a wise person once said, 'necessity is the mother of invention' and what she deemed necessary was to feel human as often as possible to offset the feeling of isolation she experienced each time something happened to prove she was no longer normal.

"You're not telling us everything," Laura stated from her location in the co-pilot's chair at the front of the aircraft.

"We all have secrets, things we can't say without the permission of another, and I don't plan on letting mine out to someone unless I person I'm talkin' to can be trusted with them," Xander said with moderate seriousness in his voice.

While she was a bit hurt by what this implied, that Xander didn't fully trust them, she found that she could not blame him. He had been with them for less than a month and this was pretty much the first time that they'd done anything together that wasn't a life or death situation. Prior to this, all their time had been spent either making the cut for the New X-Men team or fighting for their lives against Nimrod and Stryker. Perhaps she should use this as an opportunity to learn more about the **real** Xander rather than the assumptions she'd made based on her own observations. If it didn't wind up telling her what she wanted to know, she could always ask the friends he probably had waiting for them. She'd definitely be asking them some questions about Xander when she got the chance but she'd save any serious inquiries until they got to know one another a bit better. After all, she'd be a stranger to them and, while introducing herself as a friend or unofficial teammate might open some doors, she doubted it'd be enough to get her all the way in.

_Still, every little bit helps._ She thought as she waited for someone else to prod the central figure of their little jaunt for information.

However it turned out that everyone else was pretty much satisfied for the time being and would wait until they actually arrived in Sunnydale before they had another Q&A session with Xander. While she would have liked to learn more in advance, she was willing to be patient in this case since she had a feeling that it'd be well worth the wait. Thus, with the speaking part of the flight over with and another hour or so of waiting until they touched down in Sunnydale, she decided that she'd use the time to listen to her favorite band. She should be able to get through half the songs on the mixed CD she'd burned off her computer at the Institute before they go there and then she'd be ready to face the staring and slur-throwing baseline humans in Sunnydale would no doubt direct her way.

After all, there was no way that Sunnydale, California would be the one town in the entire United States of America that would be either indifferent or positive towards mutants.

_**Los Angeles, California, LAX Airport, Front Entrance/Exit, Thirty Minutes Later**_

_**Lady Tsukiko's P.O.V**_

_Ugh! The things I do for you, honorable father._ Lady Tsukiko thought as she exited the building filled with the scents of ningen.

She had never been overly supportive of traveling by modern ningen machines but sadly her more preferred methods of transportation were ill equipped to cross the Atlantic Ocean so she had been left with no choice but to endure lesser means of transportation. It was disappointing that in all her years acting as administrator of her father's holdings, she had yet to solve the issue that plagued every ruler at one time or another. That issue, of course, was the complete lack of co-operation between the various demon nations of the world and the sporadic wars that popped up between clans from time to time. One of the problems with demons living for a long time was that they had even longer memories sometimes and that frequently led to fighting over something that happened a century or more ago. Within the bounds of Japan she possessed enough influence to keep the local youkai in line and behaving, the other countries didn't share her belief in running a tight ship. Half of them accepted all manner of bribes anytime some demon under their jurisdiction broke a law or endangered the masquerade demonkind maintained to prevent humankind from discovering them. While there existed a minority of demons who desired that they all rise up and conquer the world, the more rational members knew that such a war would lead to their downfall. Humans simply outnumbered the demons of the world by too great a degree for any open warfare to be considered a good idea. While it varied from country to country, most of the more respectable rulers saw the value in preserving the peace with the humans while the less reputable ones only put forth enough effort to appease their betters. It sickened her when she was forced to deal with the oily lower rulers who positively stank of corruption and vile behavior but, as Jakken would often remind her, there was always some unpleasantness when it came to ruling over others. Sadly it was a fact that the three dominant demon Lords in America were among the most corrupt she had ever had the displeasure of dealing with and they had control over all means of entering the country via arcane methods. No doubt if she had tried to secure magical transport into the country they would have either blocked her efforts or asked an unacceptable price of her in return for passage. Thus she had chosen a method that would not be so easy for them to manipulate without attracting the attention of the ningen authorities and news reporters.

_Still, it is a given that their spies will have already reported my arrival in the country._ She thought as she proceeded to the car that Jakken had reserved for them in advance. _No doubt as soon as the tower identified my aircraft a call was put into their network and by now has reached the Three. I pray that my mission in this country does not take very long._

If it took more than a week to locate the reincarnation of her father Sesshomaru, they would either attempt to force her out of the country or 'offer' her some 'assistance'. She knew better than to trust such offers of aide and would only concede to such a proposed act of co-operation if there was no way to proceed without causing them to take a dangerous amount of interest in her affairs. She had no doubt that they had by now seen the same youtube clip as she had but whether or not they knew the entire truth behind it was another thing all together. There had been several attempts over the years by lesser demons to impersonate her father in an effort to gain control over the vast riches and power that were tied to the Lord of the Western Lands but none had survive **her** inspection. In each case, when she possessed the slightest doubt about the potential youkai, she had engaged them in combat to see if they truly possessed the power and skill of her father. Needless to say, the longest she had to wait before experiencing severe anger and disappointment was one minute and that had only been because she had been partially fooled by the impersonator's acting ability. She had found out later that he had used time magic to observe her father in the past and thus learn to perfectly mimic everything from his movements to his manner of speech. The fool had even told her of events that involved her father but were known only to those close to him and it had been quite unnerving at first.

Until the fool made an assumption about something he'd been unable to see with his magic.

Once she'd heard that, all bets were off and she had torn the fool to pieces in less than four seconds, one second for every lump of flesh she tore out of him, leaving a bloody example for anyone else who tried to impersonate her honorable father. If the young man shown in the footage her daughter had shown her really was her father then she hoped that the Three would discount him as merely another impersonator. If, however, it turned out that the one who appeared to possess the Tessaiga and Bakusaiga was in fact a pretender, then he'd better pray that the Three got him first. She detested the impersonators because for every one that came, another speck of shame was added to her family's good name. While she had done her best to run her father's holdings as he would, the older youkai never let her forget that she was **not** her father. She did not possess the blades capable of dealing with a hundred threats in a single swing and, despite the fame her uncle had gained, hanyou were still looked down upon. Never mind that she could take on many pureblooded youkai that were easily three or four times more powerful than she was, they still saw her as nothing but a half-breed. It was one of the reasons why she had ordered Jakken to begin a covert search for her father's reincarnated self over a hundred years ago. She hated having to admit it but she knew that it would only be a matter of time before one of the pureblooded youkai nobles tried to pull off a hostile takeover. To date she had already managed to thwart eight separate attempts and it was by slimmer and slimmer margins each time. The last one had only been thwarted because the immediate subordinate of the ringleader had his own secret agenda that had tripped up his boss' plans.

She couldn't count on luck always being there for her.

If this turned out to be truly her father's reincarnation, many of her worries would be no more. Even now, centuries after his death, her father's reputation as a daiyoukai was still an example many tried to live by and served to keep certain forces in line. While she would likely need to bring him up to speed as far as how youkai society had developed since his time and perhaps perform a spell to integrate his past life memories with his present ones, she was confident his return would be a godsend. With his three swords of power and the abilities only a daiyoukai possessed, he would quickly bring those malcontents to their knees and re-establish their family's dominance over the other clans. More than that, though, she would have her father back and that thought alone gave her the strength needed to see this venture through to the end. Getting into the ningen car, she rolled up the tinted windows and, with sigh of relief, removed the scarf she'd had wrapped around her head in order to hide her dog-like ears from prying eyes. Much like her uncle InuYasha, kami keep his soul safe, her status as a hanyou resulted in her physical appearance being a mixture of human and dog attributes. Also like her uncl,e she possessed a weapon created from a fang taken straight from her father's mouth and hammered into the form of two kodachi. While not as powerful as the three swords her father possessed, they were still respectable weapons nonetheless and had taken the lives of more than a few powerful youkai. It also gave her the advantage of causing her enemies to underestimate her rather severely. They thought because her blades were so small that they would be next to useless against them.

They learned how wrong they were two seconds before they breathed their last.

"What news of my father have you gathered so far, Jakken?" She asked the toad youkai that had finally taken off his disguise.

"We have identified three of the ningen he was seen with in the video footage. They are all mutants currently residing in a place called the Xavier Institute just outside Salem Center, New York," Jakken replied as he tried to competently use the laptop computer before him. "From what our sources have been able to uncover, he might have the form and abilities of Lord Sesshomaru but, beyond that, all that he possesses is muscle instincts and reflexive responses to certain situations."

Mutants? She had half suspected that the teenagers in the footage had been hanyou or some form of demon that she hadn't been aware of but, if D'Hoffryn had been truthful about her father's spirit being reborn in a human male teenager, then she could see how things must have progressed. Living all his life as a human and then suddenly finding himself different, it was only logical that he would choose to reside with a group that had a connection to the human race but possessed powers more akin to youkai. It had even been speculated when mutants first began showing up that mutants were either experiments by ningen to graft youkai abilities onto their own kind or were some form of hanyou. Whatever the case, the current difficulties facing the mutant population could give her a way to persuade her father to rejoin his family and, after a few months, reclaim his throne as the Lord of the Western Lands. If she promised to support causes like mutant rights and offered mutants sanctuary within the lands under her control, then she would earn his favor and perhaps convince him to see her as an ally. From there she could begin to groom him for his position as youkai Lord and, when he had learned all he needed to, she would gracefully step aside so that he could reclaim the throne that was his.

Perhaps he would even reclaim his role as her father.

She could only hope.

"Nevertheless, he has been able to use the Tenseiga, Tessaiga and Bakusaiga without much difficulty, although based on these reports, I do not believe he is aware of their limitations. Naturally his displays of power have attracted the attention of several agencies involved with superhuman powers and mutant affairs." Jakken stated as he continued summarizing the reports they'd received thus far. "An incomplete entry has been made as part of the Super Human Registration Act recently passed by the American government. It is incomplete and unofficial but our operative believes that those in charge of the Act intend to exert what pressure they can to persuade him to officially join."

"The fools! Whether it be his past life or his present one, my father would never consent to serve anyone no matter the reason." Her chilling tone was the only sign of her boiling anger.

"Quite right, my Lady! Lord Sesshomaru is the son of the great Inutaisho and a great warrior," Jakken said, quite offended that some humans would dare to force his past and future Lord into servitude. "I have already sent the order to the operative to do all he can to discourage this venture without revealing his true allegiances."

"Good. Is there anything else?" She asked, pleased that the toad youkai knew her well enough to know what she would order him to do.

"When the operative attempted to ascertain where Lord Sesshomaru's reincarnated self was located at present, he learned that he was apparently sent on a mission to California," Jakken replied, skimming through the files displayed on his screen. "The data files he accessed didn't specify a particular town or location but I believe a simple locator spell should be sufficient to ascertain his location."

"Good. Once we get settled you will cast the spell immediately," she said as she noticed that there was one person who was not paying any attention to the conversation at hand.

Ever since they had left Japan, Chieko had been showing less than satisfactory attention to the important issue of finding and meeting her grandfather. It was true that the young hanyou had been born years after her grandfather's demise at the conclusion of a battle against a dragon youkai lord from the mainland. However she had told her daughter many a bedtime story about her grandfather and there was no shortage of paintings depicting Lord Sesshomaru of the Western Lands. Nevertheless, once her daughter had entered the youkai equivalent of adolescence, bedtime stories became something 'for little pups' and paintings transformed into 'boring old stuff'. Sadly it was a startling commonality between humans and youkai that when children reached a certain age, they ceased listening to their elders because they were convinced that they knew better. She only hoped that it didn't take her daughter as long to learn the error of her ways as it did for her.

She didn't know if she could endure another three centuries of teenage angst, mood swings and rebelling against authority.

Seeing the ningen buildings and people fly by her window, she wondered what sort of person her reincarnated father was in his present life. Was he like she remembered him? Was he composed yet shining with an inner fire that could be deadly or comforting depending on the circumstances? Or was he more like his half-brother InuYasha now with a chipped shoulder and tough guy attitude? Or was he something completely different?

She found herself quite looking forward to finding out the answers to those questions.

_**Sunnydale, California**_

_**Main Street, Mid-Evening, Xander's P.O.V**_

"Ya know, I've lived in this town most of my life, and I never once realized how much it **reeked**!" Xander said as he did his best not to let his sensitive sense of smell provoke him into making a spectacle of himself. "Hey Laura? How do you deal with all the smells your nose picks up?"

"Training and self-discipline," replied Laura, who was taking in everything around her like an undercover operative cataloguing potential threats or escape routes.

"Well then I'm out of luck because I don't have a lot of either," he said half jokingly as he did his best to keep the smells his sniffer was taking in at the back of his mind to keep them less noticeable.

"Where will we find your friends, Xander?" Dust asked as she looked about more out of curiosity than the professional way that Laura was taking in the town.

"This time of night? Probably patrolling UCSC campus or one of the local cemeteries. Unless, of course, there's a big bad in the neighborhood, in which case they'd be at Giles' place researching." He replied considering where the Scoobies would be with Sunnydale High School blown up.

"So where do you want to check first?" Husk asked, taking in the small town before her.

It was a tough question, considering the possibilities. Still, doing the obvious thing, like splitting them up to search for the Scoobies, was not precisely a good idea either. They had only been in town for five minutes so far and already he could see the looks of fear and hatred on the faces of Sunnydale's citizens. Despite the fact that some precautions had been taken to try and avoid the usual anti-mutant trouble, it hadn't taken long for someone to spot Cessily's silver skin. From there word of mouth had carried the news of a woman made of liquid silver all the way down main street and, within the hour, he knew the entire town would know. Perhaps not the specifics but they'd know that a group of people had entered the town and that one of them was a 'mutie' or something equally derogatory in nature. He just hoped that the local bigots and racists didn't wind up doing more than use their foul language because he really didn't want his return home to tainted by that sort of crap. So the only choice remaining was to simply pick a spot to search and go from there.

"We'll head to Giles' place first. Even if everyone else is on patrol, there'll be at least one person there who might be able to tell us where the rest are located," he replied as he began to lead the group of six towards Giles' apartment. "Just… don't be surprised if one or more of them take on the 'attack first, ask questions later' way of doing things. On the Hellmouth you don't always have time to ask 'what are you doing here'."

"Like they could even touch us!" Hellion said with his usual cockiness floating through his voice.

"Don't get cocky," he said with a bit of firmness in his voice. "It's that kind of thinking that caused many a big bad to get a sword in the gut because they didn't take me and my friends seriously."

"Do you always kill the demons you meet?" Dust asked tentatively as she tried to keep from looking any Sunnydalers in the eye.

"Just the ones that are into the whole 'kill/crush/conquer the world' way of acting," he replied, turning right off of main street. "As long as they don't make or go looking for trouble, we pretty much leave them be. We usually have enough on our hands handling the troublemakers without going after the neutral or benign demons."

"Is it really that busy here?" Cessily asked, looking a bit uncomfortable at the looks she was getting.

"Pretty much. Fortunately the really nasty stuff doesn't happen until around May or June," he said as he tried to not curl his nose at a particularly foul smell. "It's mostly small things at the beginning of the school year like newbie vamps or some demon taking advantage of one situation or another. Nothing that can't be handled."

It took him precisely three seconds to realize what he'd just done.

"Well shit! Now I've done it," he said, shaking his head at making such an amateur mistake on the Hellmouth.

"What's wrong, Xander?" Dust asked, sounding concerned.

"Well Sooraya there're just some phrases you don't use on a Hellmouth and I've just said one of the worst ones," he said, looking about the immediate area to try and figure out when the trouble would come.

"That's crazy! Bad things don't happen just 'cause someone says something like 'what is the worst that could happen' or something," Julian said dismissively, as though being told that he wasn't perfect.

"They do on the Hellmouth and now you've just made sure that this trip is going to be anything **BUT** smooth," he said shaking his head at the other male member of the group in disbelief. "Good thing that that's Giles' apartment building down the street. Hopefully we can get the meet & greet over with before the shit hits the fan."

Walking towards Giles' apartment building without a word, he wondered what would be the best way to break the news to the gang. He knew that his face still possessed many traits that his human one had but, considering what the Scoobies usually faced on a nightly basis, he was going to need something a bit more unique. Memories would be a nice start but, after living amongst mutants and recalling his adventures in Sunnydale, he knew that all an enemy needed to do was hire a telepath or be one themselves to copy those. In the end he was forced to concede that unless there was a spell that could identify his soul, the best he could hope for was to go all out honesty-wise and hope for the best. Walking up to the door to the former Watcher's apartment, he reached up to knock and with an all too familiar pattern gently hit the wooden door in front of him. It was a known fact that he'd gotten considerably stronger since he'd been transformed into his present state and that meant he couldn't knock as hard as he would have as a human unless he wanted to shatter the door. Waiting for the door to open, it didn't take long for his enhanced sense of hearing to pick up movement inside the apartment as well as some familiar voices. Willow, Giles and, unless he was mistaken, Mrs. S was in there as well. A bit of a surprise, considering how the older woman hadn't gone out of her way to become involved with her daughter's calling as a Slayer. Aside from the few times that it spilled over into the Summers home, Joyce had pretty much stayed out of the whole slayage deal and probably preferred it that way. Bracing himself as the door opened up, he was glad to see that it was Giles who had done it since he didn't want to cause the ladies too big a shock.

"Hey, G-Man! One slightly non-Xander shaped friend precisely as ordered." He said, trying to make things seem like just another night on the Hellmouth.

Giles' response to that was to faint dead away.

This was not a good sign.

_**Undetermined Amount of Time Later, Giles' Apartment, Giles' P.O.V**_

_I really must cut back on that malt liquor before bed._ Giles thought as the first beams of consciousness began to take hold of his mind.

Not that he could really be blamed considering the events of the past few weeks.

While it was still somewhat the summer lull period in which the demonic and paranormal activity is at its lowest, especially low now thanks to the death of Mayor Wilkins, there had been rumblings lately in the underworld. Rumors of an old power returning that had the patrons of Willy's Alibi Room debating things like choosing sides as well as whether or not it'd be a good idea to leave for the nearest adjacent dimension. Buffy had tried to 'convince' Willy, as well as a few of the bar patrons, to cough up what they knew but they either spoke a language his blonde Slayer didn't know or refused to speak, beating or no beating. This, in a word, was troubling. With the number of victories Joyce's daughter had managed to gain during the course of her four years as the Slayer, whether it was on her own or with the aide of others, she had gained quite the reputation. As such, very few demons in Sunnydale had the backbone to stand up to her and those that did were swiftly shown the error of their ways. For the demons to show such resolve to keep information from her, it kept him inside with his books during the day and sparing a few hours at night consulting his various resources for answers. Sadly his own informants in the paranormal and demonic communities were being unusually vague in reply to his inquires, with one of them even telling him to keep his Slayer off the streets for the foreseeable future. When a demon, even a neutral one, advised you to take the bane of the unholy creatures of the night off the streets for an indefinite period of time, it did not mean good times were ahead for all.

Naturally that was when Xander called just a few short hours ago to inform him that he had yet again stumbled into quite a bit of trouble.

While the description of the situation had been a bit vague, it had been enough to make him assemble all of the self-proclaimed Scoobies to undergo research. Buffy had been out on patrol at the time but he expected her back for debriefing a little after midnight and, by then, they should have something informative about young Harris' situation.

_Hold on…wasn't I awake a short while ago?_ He thought as his senses made use of his rising consciousness to inform him of his current surroundings.

"I think he's coming to," a familiar female voice whispered.

"It's a good thing you caught him, Wills," came another voice with equal familiarity but it also triggered a sense of urgency in him.

It was then that the memories of the last few seconds prior to his suddenly becoming unconscious rushed to the front of his mind and almost had him clawing for the sweet bliss of unconsciousness. Sadly he knew that this would solve nothing and that sooner or later he would have to confront the unpleasant truth that had just shown up on his doorstep. Thus, with much reluctance, he allowed himself to rise to the top of his mind and all the hassles that came with living in the conscious world. Opening his eyes, he squinted for a moment as light hit his eyes but, once everything adjusted, he saw the all too familiar ceiling of his apartment and, judging by what his back was telling him, he was on his couch. Pushing himself into a sitting position, he confirmed that his memory was not faulty and that Alexander LaVelle Harris had dropped a new mystery into their laps. His eyes gravitated to the primary source of his unconsciousness, Xander himself, and could immediately tell that the changes in the boy were more profound than Ethan's Halloween spell. He could see elements of both Xander and another unknown personality in the body language of the young man before him, making it different from the Halloween spell. With the spell using Janus as the center piece, the implanted personality was completely dominant with the native one being regulated to a strictly observer role. If he had to define what he was seeing before him now, he would have to say that the mind of the founding male member of the Scooby gang had incorporated aspects of the foreign personality into itself.

Whether this was the way the boy's mind chose to cope with the new input or because it was an attribute of the phenomena that changed him, he didn't know.

There were also other people in the room, four young women and one young man, who were not entirely of the norm themselves from his point of view. One looked as though she were completely made of metal with red hair that gave off a sheen that told him it was metallic in nature as well. The next two young women, one with blonde hair while the other's was raven colored, looked normal on the surface but he could tell that there was something about them that wasn't. Both wore clothes that were skintight and flattered their figures considerably but, as the fabric the clothes were made of was apparently leather, he quickly raised his gaze to their faces.

He didn't want the ladies present to think him some lecherous fool.

The blonde young woman looked to be the kinder of the two but still trained for combat as he could see an underlying readiness in her eyes. It might have very well have been unconscious but he could see her cataloguing the various entrances, exits and components of the room. Was she a soldier or some sort of law enforcement agent? If so, then was she related to the mess that Xander made in New York when he instructed the person he found in the truth of the world? He didn't know but he hoped that her presence wouldn't draw the gaze of sanctioned law enforcement officials to Sunnydale or Buffy's duty would become considerably harder to carry out.

As for the one with the hair as black as the night… the truth of the matter was that she moved like a true predator rather than a living human being.

Her eyes were not those of a young woman but, rather, those of a predatory machine that was ready to draw blood or take a life at the drop of a hat. Every movement was measured and precise to the point where she would be able to easily intercept anyone who hadn't entered with Xander a short while ago. An unsettling thought and it made him thankful that he had taken the precaution of placing wards on both his apartment as well as Buffy's home. While he didn't know if it would be enough to stop the woman, he hoped it would be enough to give the others some protection should matters become… complicated.

The second last person in the party was a bit more normal in appearance, being obviously of the Sunni Muslim faith judging by her clothes and skin tone. Her behavior spoke of modesty and humility that was also in keeping with her chosen religion but there was something that struck her as strange. Every once and awhile the young woman would look in Xander's direction but almost immediately look away, as though she didn't want to be caught looking. This was more like what he would expect from a teenage girl, considering the number of times he'd seen Willow do the same before she matured into the person she was now.

Whether it would turn out the same way was anyone's guess.

As for the young man that finished the entourage that Xander had brought with him, it felt like he was looking into a mirror of sorts. Before him stood a young man with raven hair that looked as though he considered himself to be the perfect man and was supremely confident in his abilities. It reminded of him when he was that age and chose to defy his father's wishes that he go into the family business, also known as the Watcher's Council. He had been determined each day that he rose from bed to do something that not only defied what his father would have considered 'proper' but also that he'd enjoy doing as well. In the beginning it had been something simple as fast women, booze, drugs and joyrides, sometimes in that order. When that got old, he made the ill-fated choice to dive into the world of the occult for thrills to surpass all those that came before both for his own personal enjoyment as well as to metaphorically slap his father in the face once more. It wasn't until the life of one of his friends was lost because of his 'fun' that he got his wake up call and strove to repent, taking the path he should have taken from the beginning. He didn't completely lose his independence but he did follow the path of a Watcher and, aside from a few moments when he seriously considered quitting, he found the vocation to be quite fulfilling.

He just hoped that the young man Xander had brought with him didn't follow a similar path.

All in all, it was an unusual group but before he made any further judgments or decisions it would probably be best to hear Xander's story from beginning to end.

"Xander? Perhaps it'd be best if you started your tale from the day you arrived in New York City and tell us what happened from that point onwards," he suggested while trying to make himself comfortable, since it was bound to be a long story. "Don't leave any of the details out as none of us knows what could be crucial in determining the cause of your current… um… circumstances."

"Sure. Well it all started the day after I arrived in NYC and decided to take in the sights." Xander explained as he began to regale everyone with the steps that took place that brought him to his current state.

It was both admirable and exasperating to learn of how the young man had found trouble within two days of arriving in the city and then actually sought it out rather than sensibly stay away. After all, it was a fact that there were quite a few costumed heroes in the city that could have handled the strange predator he sensed walked down the sidewalk. When he described the encounter with the demon-led gang in the park and the fight that followed, though, he found it almost too much to believe that the raven haired young woman could be capable of such ruthlessness. It was at the level of almost because when he looked back at her as the facts of the battle was related he could see no change in her expression whatsoever. Most young women would have had some sort of reaction to the retelling of such a battle, whether it was a showing of pride or an expression of tension, but Laura, as she was called, remained completely stone-faced. There was not a single flicker or twitch on her face and that bothered him on a level that made him immediately make a note in his mind to prepare certain contingencies just in case.

As the tale progressed, he was somewhat surprised but not entirely troubled by the news of their being some unrest among the demonic organized crime elements. Criminals were criminals regardless the species and, as such, there would always be the occasional attempt by the lower ranks to overthrow those above them. When he heard that Xander had been shot and had fallen into the burning restaurant/bar that had been the meeting place for the demonic lieutenants, everyone not previously privy to this information gasped both in shock as well as in concern. This was soon eclipsed by concern over the time unaccounted for, between the moment the young man landed in the inferno to the moment he awoke changed, but the words the founding male member of the Scooby gang said had been spoken to him gave him a vital clue.

_Welcome back to the land of the living, Sesshomaru._

While it was possible for him to be mistaken, the statement implied that the being responsible had been trying to bring someone back to life by using Xander's body as a vessel. Either that or the being believed that Xander was this being in some way, shape or form.

From that point on, though, events became somewhat edited and, judging from the looks on the faces of the group of strangers, it involved them somehow. The tales that followed renewed his desire to seek out the liquor cabinet as he assimilated the facts being spoken as he learned of the evil some humans were capable of. Attacking a bus full of teenagers with an anti-tank weapon, surgically amputating another then leaving that person to die, assaulting a private school with the intent to kill everyone inside seemed to him to be more akin to the behavior he'd expect from a demon. At the same time, though, he couldn't dismiss the fact that humanity was capable of acts similar or, in some cases, superior when compared to the acts of demons. He knew that tonight, when he was alone, he would spend some time trying to soothe the tremors of horror vibrating within him.

As events being told began to catch up with the present, he began to catalogue what he had been told about the abilities and attributes Xander's body now possessed. The obvious physical abilities were there but enhanced to levels that seemed to be far beyond what normal demons possessed. Three years on the Hellmouth had done much to give him firsthand experience as to what different breeds of demons were capable of, but he had never heard of a demon capable of such speed or strength. When added to the ability to transform into an unimaginably large demon dog and regenerate a lost limb within three days, it had him at a loss to define the species of demon the Harris boy had turned into. It reminded him somewhat of the Old One that Mayor Wilkins turned into during the graduation ceremony but at no point during that battle did Richard exhibit similar abilities. Was that because the Mayor had not been given enough time to fully come into his new form's powers? Perhaps. It was a known fact that Wilkins had been depending on the fact that he'd be able to devour the people attending the graduation ceremony in order to solidify his transformation. Perhaps, had the man succeeded, he would have been able to transform into a more humanoid form and wield such powers.

The swords, though, were a different matter.

One sword possessed of the power to unleash a wave of destructive energy that could go for blocks. Another sword with the ability to do something similar but at the same time possessing very different attributes as well as an energy wave that was a different color.

The final one possessed the most amazing abilities of the three as it could revive the dead and heal the majority of physical maladies.

Needless to say he had a feeling that it was Xander that had the demonic community atwitter and the reason why his source had advised him to keep Buffy off the streets for the foreseeable future. With powers such as the ones just described, it was safe to say that whoever currently ruled the demonic underworld of Sunnydale just got rather violently displaced as the most powerful being in town.

If this wasn't a valid excuse to raid the liquor cabinet later, he didn't know what was.

"Well…er… Xander, it would seem that you've rather outdone yourself this time," he said, trying to keep his voice even but still some incredulity slipped through. "This even surpasses that foolish Valentine's Day spell you had Amy cast."

"Valentine's Day spell?" Asked the girl made of metal with a smirk of amusement.

"Ah, yeah, just something that really hammered home the fact that magic is not a toy, that's all," Xander said, doing an admirable job of keeping the anxiety out of his voice. "Nothing really interesting. So, Giles, did you guys dig anything up on that name I gave you?"

He waited a moment, anticipating that one of the ladies would inquire further about the ill-fated love spell, but nothing happened. He was mystified for a moment until he spotted the ladies who were strangers pick one of the Sunnydale residents with their eyes and then he knew that they intended to get the details later when the former human Harris lad was not around. A smart move as it would leave Willow and the others less inhibited in their retelling of events and that would make for some amusing moments when they decided to pounce on the demonic looking young man. In any case, it was best to answer the young man's questions with what little information he had been able to uncover with the others since his phone call hours earlier.

"Yes, well, I have been looking into the name you gave me but I'll hope you understand that I'd thought I would have more than a few hours to research the subject with the others," he stated as he reached for the volume that held the most important information. "From what I could learn, you were correct to suspect an Asian connection as the name is in fact Japanese in origin. While the name is not specific to any particular species, I focused my efforts to the more… unusual aspects of the country. That narrowed the possibilities down to ten possibilities but now that I have seen you firsthand and heard your tale, I believe I know where to look."

Flipping through the book, he looked for the desired entry before setting the book on the table so that all could see the drawing on the right page.

"His name was Sesshomaru and he was a very powerful demon lord in Japan, the son of the great dog general youkai, who ruled the demons living in the western regions of Japan for a little over five hundred years," he explained, picking up the book after he was certain that the others had seen enough of the drawing of Sesshomaru. "With formidable powers of his own, there were few demons capable of matching him in a fight. When added to the power of his three demon-forged swords, his reign was secure for many centuries.

"That is until sometime in 1848 when he was slain under mysterious circumstances. There are numerous theories as to how it happened but all that can be confirmed is that he died in battle against a strong human force. Evidence of European sorcery and some of the most advanced weaponry of the time was collected by agents of the Council when they arrived to investigate but there was not enough left to form an accurate timeline as to what happened when." He said as he strove to summarize his research for the attention-lacking teenagers. "Sadly this proved to be a devastating blow to the youkai native to Japan. With the defeat of one of the most powerful of their kind, their confidence in their ability to defeat their foreign foes was seriously decreased. Events from then on are a bit sketchy due to the Bakamatsu but, from what I can recall from investigations post World War 2, the youkai hierarchy managed to remain more or less intact. However their strength was noticeably decreased and thus they were forced to 'blend in' as it were rather than move about the country on equal, if not superior, terms with humans."

"What sort of guy was this Sesshomaru? Besides a power house of a demon and a Lord," Xander asked, sounding a bit uncomfortable with his current form.

"What I've read describes him as being rather cold natured and utterly ruthless to his enemies," he replied, gathering up the descriptions in his head. "To put it bluntly, he would completely outclass Oz in terms of how little emotion he showed. Added to the behavior that was common to warrior princes of that country and he was quite the intimidating fellow even when he wasn't fighting."

"So he was evil?" Willow asked, sounding uncertain about how to classify the person her best friend had been turned into.

"Not necessarily. A Lord of that era had many difficulties he had to cope with as well as quite a few enemies looking to displace them. Thus they had to project a certain image, maintain a certain reputation, as a layer of defense against those that threatened them. By behaving in such a manner, he appeared to be untouchable and without any exploitable weaknesses. True, it didn't stop the attempts on his life or his lands but I imagine it did wonders for discouraging all but the most driven of challengers."

"Makes sense. If you look unbeatable, only the real badasses will show up on your doorstep rather than a mob of wannabes," Xander said. "Still, while it's nice to know I wasn't turned into a complete asshole, any ideas as to why this was done to me or how I can turn back into my old self?"

"That… will require a great deal more research, Xander. As I said it's only been a few hours since you requested that I look into your… condition. I will need to determine the nature of the spell that changed you as well as the identity of the person who cast it," he replied, trying to keep matters positive yet realistic. "Tampering with an arcane transformation on this level is not to be taken lightly. Certain preparations need to be taken and information gathered."

"How long will this taking and gathering process be? Any idea?" Xander pressed, looking as though he would very much appreciate anything to grab a hold of.

"I am afraid that I cannot give you an exact estimate as to how long this might take. Had you returned earlier it might have been possible to cast a spell that would have at least given us the appearance of the one that did this to you," he explained, deciding that the honest approach would be best in this situation. "I promise that I will do everything I can do learn more about your condition in an effort to reverse it but it will take time."

"I figured this wouldn't be a quick fix." Xander sighed before something seemed to catch his attention. "Not a problem, I guess, since aside from ruining my rep as a long distance sleeper it hasn't been all bad."

"No more eleven to twelve p.m's?" Willow asked with a bit of a smile at her friend's statement.

"Nope. More like eleven in the evening until about four in the morning," Xander replied, shaking his head with disbelief. "Now I have to find new ways to fill up my day. By the way, when's Buffy due back?"

It was an odd bit of timing that the moment Xander finished his statement the door to the apartment opened up to reveal said blonde Slayer freshly returned from her nightly patrol of Sunnydale. From a cursory visual examination it looked to be just another routine night, since he could see no signs that she had experienced any more difficulty slaying demons than other nights. A good sign but, nevertheless, he would keep the warnings he'd received from his sources in mind since it would be just the sort of Hellmouth induced luck they experienced for them to lower their guard only to be beset with another calamity. He was about to make with the formal introductions and explain things to his Slayer when she laid eyes on Xander and tensed up, looking to be two steps away from attacking. However she didn't get more than two steps before a black and tanned blur crossed into his field of vision, knocked the Summers girl to the ground and used an arm lock to hold the bane of demon's in place. All of this happened within the space of five seconds and it only took him a second to recognize the one that subdued Buffy as the raven-haired young woman that he had been so concerned about.

What really turned out to be the eye opener though were the two metallic claws that popped out from the young woman's free hand that looked terribly sharp.

"Xander? Is there perhaps something you should have told us about your, er, friends?" He asked, beginning to wonder if matters were going to become more complicated than usual.


	6. Discoveries and Discussions

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material contained herein. They are the rightful property of their creators and associated companies. I make no money off of this whatsoever. I write because it's fun and because there are those who enjoy reading my work.

_**One Hour Later, The Streets of Sunnydale Leading to the USCS Ladies Dorms, Buffy's P.O.V**_

_Mutants. Huh. _Buffy thought as she made her way back to the female dorm building with Willow by her side.

Listening to the redhead babble on about Xander, his new look and the friends he'd made while he was away, she was somewhat proud of the fact that, unlike the rest of the crazy world, she hadn't gone schitzo after meeting a set of mutants for the first time. Then again, after everything she'd been through since becoming the Slayer, mutants didn't rate all that high on the wig-o-meter so she might be a tad biased. True, she'd probably react a little differently if she had to throw down with that terrorist Magnet Man or whatever his name was, but if Xander thought they were cool then she'd trust him. True, she'd been a little quick to pummel when she'd first laid eyes on him but, after she'd been let up by black leather girl and she'd had a chance to really look at the white haired guy, take his actions, voice and such into account, it was all too easy to pick out the Xanderness out of all the demony stuff. From there she'd gotten a cliff notes version of how it all happened and it made her wonder if some higher being really had it in for her boy-like friend (but not boyfriend, no. Xanders were not boyfriends.) Strange things had always happened to the Xan-man, ever since the day she had first met him, but this was definitely a level or two above what she thought was possible. On the plus side, though, it sounded like he could really take care of himself now and, with Giles on the job, the Scooby gang would have their Xander-shaped founder back soon enough. When push came to shove, her Watcher had never failed to come up with the perfect solution to the problem. If it wasn't in his books, he knew someone who had the book he needed.

The reason, however, why she hadn't joined in Willow's conversation at the moment, aside from the fact that the redhead was babbling enough for the two of them, was the fact that she'd felt **IT** happen. Right when she'd been pinned to the ground by Laura, she'd felt **IT** stir but at a much higher level than what she'd felt during previous episodes. It was something she'd always kept a secret from the others, both family and friends, but tonight it had felt as though it would be exposed for all to see. It had been two years since it'd happened for the first time, the night she'd died for the first time in the Master's cave, but ever since then it had been lurking around inside of her, waiting for an opportunity to surge forward. Several such chances had happened since then but mostly it happened during situations where she faced off against surprisingly powerful foes that had truly pushed her to her limits before she beat them. The Order of Terracota, Ted, The Judge, Kaki Toast, Spike and Mayor Snake were just the top eight baddies that had caused **IT** to flow through her body. What made **IT** so terrible for her was that, though it gave power on top of what she already had as the Slayer, it also felt like something was changing within her. As though something wrong was flowing just beneath the surface when **IT** decided to come forth and it freaked her out more than anything else in her life. It felt wrong, it felt unnatural and the only thing that kept her from telling everyone about it was the fear of what they'd think if they knew.

She didn't **think** she was a mutant, no fancy powers aside from her usual Slayer ones, but she knew she wasn't normal just the same.

After tonight, though, she wondered if perhaps he had been worrying over nothing. Seeing the reactions the others had had after learning that the people Xander'd brought back with him were mutants, it had been a shock to see how neutral they'd been. Most people tended to react to people with strange powers, mutants in particular, like they were freaks and monsters of the highest order. Even those people that prided themselves on being impartial often couldn't keep themselves from exhibiting some of the same reactions to those that were different as everyone else in the world. To see Giles, Willow and her mother acting like it was just another day on the Hellmouth lifted most of the reluctance she'd felt about revealing her secret but a little still remained. Mutants were one thing but, since she didn't know precisely what the source of **IT** was and, therefore, couldn't predict how the others would take it. What if she was part demon or something? Or what if she was part alien and didn't even know it? There were endless possibilities that might explain the foreign feeling in her body and she just couldn't help but think of more worst case scenarios than positive ones. In the end, like most people her age, she decided to put off telling anyone anything until she literally had no other choice.

"And then I thought I'd strip naked before lathering myself up with hot fudge before prancing around in front of the entire USCS faculty," Willow said in a casual manner as though relating her schedule for the next day.

"Huh? What!" she said reacting to the bizarreness of what she'd just heard.

"Buffy! You haven't been listening to a word I've said have you?" Willow asked, sounding a pinch put out by her first female friend's lack of attention.

"Sorry! It's just… it's a lot to take in with Xander's new look and his friends and everything." She said, grabbing a hold of the one thing that might seem plausible to her smart friend.

"I know! Just when you think Xander's luck can't get any weirder!" Willow said, her earlier annoyance forgotten and replaced with her bestest friend's situation. "Still… he looks pretty hot with all that white hair!"

"Willow! I thought you were still mourning Oz," she exclaimed, remembering how the stoic werewolf had only left Sunnydale a week ago.

"Well, yeah, but there's no harm in window shopping is there?" Willow asked while managing to sneak out of the hole she'd almost fallen into.

"I suppose, but I bet it's a bitch taking care of so much hair," she said recalling how the white hair stretched from his head almost down to his waist. "It's a fine line between dashing and troublesome."

"Yeah. All those trips to the hairdressers and the money spent on hair care products alone would bankrupt him in no time," Willow said in agreement as they finally caught sight of their dorm.

She was about to say more when she spotted a group of three guys dressed up like commandoes skulking around the vegetation that could be found anywhere on campus. Off and on since the first day of classes she'd seen them but hadn't paid much attention, figuring that they were just a bunch of jocks playing soldier. However, after the mess at the dorm when similarly dressed guys had tried to kidnap Willow, she'd started to rethink that view of them. She'd already voiced her concerns to Giles and he agreed to look in on it from his side of things but she knew she wouldn't feel safe until she had a better understanding of what was going on.

So long as she didn't catch them attacking humans or messing with her friends again, she'd be alright waiting until she got the scoop on them.

_**Initiative Compound, Beneath UCSD Campus, One Hour Later, Riley Finn's P.O.V**_

"Agent Finn!" Came an authoritative voice that had both him along with Forest and Graham wincing with dread.

The reason quickly became evident when they turned to see one Director Maggie Walsh approaching them with a detail of five men behind her and a large rectangular metal box. While all of them knew that the woman was in charge of things and they would do their duty as far as upholding the chain of command, he personally had a few misgivings about putting a scientist in charge of the Initiative. In his mind, despite her credentials, Margaret Walsh was still a civilian no matter what authority she had been given by the top brass. As such she knew nothing of tactics, nor did she grasp how difficult their jobs as soldiers really was, especially when it came HSTs. Put him and his team against a group of bank robbers or a small terrorist cell and they could handle things fine but the HSTs were on an entirely differently level, requiring different tools to defeat. When added to the fact that they were learning about the creatures from files belonging to an organization that was only a hundred years old, that meant they were learning something new every day.

Usually in painful and sometimes fatal ways.

Still, until she did something wrong that he could bring to his superiors, he would follow her orders to the best of his ability and carry out the mandate of the Initiative.

"Yes, Director Walsh?" he askd, coming to attention and hearing the rest of his team do the same.

"We have a new piece of equipment fresh from the R&D department and you're team has been selected to put it through its paces in the field," Walsh said as two of the men who had been following her began to open up the box. "It's the Biological Organism Ability Registration and Determiner and Storage device, or B.O.A.R.D.S for short."

He was pretty sure that he wasn't the only person present who was wondering where the eggheads who built the device had come up with the name.

"Before you ask, the scientist in charge of the creation of the device was a former S.H.I.E.L.D scientist that was transferred to us. Apparently he has a fondness for acronyms," Walsh said with a bit of annoyance as though she'd already heard complaints on the subject. "Essentially its purpose is to make it easier for us to distinguish between humans and the various HSTs that can shapeshift to look like one."

Watching as the soldier lifted the device out of its box, he cringed at how difficult it would be to carry it on a mission, never mind actually use it. It looked like a cross between the BFG 9000 from DOOM and one of those mini-satellite dishes incorporated into the business end of the device. It also apparently had a set of goggles that would connect to a port near the handle of the device and he presumed that there'd be some sort of H.U.D. All in all, he would wait until he had a chance to use it in the field before he made up his mind as to whether or not he liked it.

"It works in three stages, so pay attention," Walsh said, doing her best to move past the unusual name. "Stage one involves the unique sensor system, which is a combination of Prime Sentinel parts and some of the more unique HST detection equipment we've developed. It should allow you to pick out the target regardless of appearance and classify it based on a system of identifying factors taken from several examinations of HSTs. This information will be displayed on the goggles that will serve as a H.U.D for you when the device is in use.

"Stage two involves the miniature satellite dish that will automatically calibrate the energy discharges to something that should affect the target based on the identifying factors that have been determined. By delivering a quick tap to the trigger, you will start the charging process of the weapon during which it will emit a low level energy field calibrated to the same frequency as the main discharge. This should immobilize, or at least impair, the target's ability to retaliate or escape you," Walsh said as she continued to explain the device without caring about losing her audience.

"What's to stop it from immobilizing us or impairing our movement?" Graham asked with a professional tone of voice.

"The energy field will extend outwards from the dish and only affect what is in front of it. So long as you stay behind it, you'll be fine," Walsh replied, sounding like her answer was the most obvious thing in the world. "The final phase is the main discharge that will hit the target, disrupting its form on a genetic level, sending it into shock and making it safe for transport back to HQ. There is a kill setting but it requires twice the charge time as the stun setting so I recommend you only go that far if you absolutely have to. You'll be taking this out with you tomorrow night on patrol and I expect a report on its feasibility for field work when you get back"

He could tell her right away that carrying something like this into the field would be bothersome, if only because of the size of the device. It was difficult enough to get around the campus or Sunnydale proper with the standard weapons but at least those were things the civilians would discount as props or non-functional replications if they were ever spotted. With this one, however, they would probably have to keep it in a bag or sack or something until they found the right place to use it without being spotted, otherwise such an advanced-looking design would attract attention and that was something that completely went against what the Initiative was all about. It was a covert black ops project created for the express purpose of learning more about the HSTs and, if possible, seeing if they had any possible military applications. Personally he couldn't see half these things as being anything other than potential cannon fodder and, considering how powerful some of the mutants out there were, these things would need some major upgrades to be any good. While he didn't have any issues with mutants, he did acknowledge that they were a very real threat and that to take too much of a soft touch with them would be a big mistake. Forest, he knew, was a little more prejudicial on the mutant topic but he didn't think the guy would let his personal opinions get in the way of his duty.

"That is all." Walsh said before she walked away to presumably the next stop on her schedule.

They waited until Walsh was well away from them before they fell into some distinctly more relaxed postures and also allowed their true opinions of their newest piece of equipment rise to the surface.

"I hope that thing performs better than it looks," Forest said, showing his skepticism with every word.

"Definitely. It looks like something out of a sci-fi movie," Graham stated, kneeling down to get a better look at it. "I wonder if fires like one."

"Guess we'll find out tomorrow," he said before moving to close up the box so he could wheel it to the armory.

As he walked, though, he thought back to the botched mission at the female dorm trying to recapture hostile seventeen and take Willow into custody for observation. It was fairly standard procedure during situations in which there is some doubt as to whether or not they had become infected by an HST. They'd be rendered unconscious and taken to a secure location before being examined by an Initiative doctor and, if they proved to be clean, a drug would be administer to mess with their memory and then they'd be dropped some place safe. If, however, they turned out to be infected, measures were taken depending on the severity of the situation. However, due to the interference of an unknown attacker and a bright light blinding them thanks to their night vision goggles, they'd not only lost Hostile Seventeen but, due to the commotion, they'd had to make tracks. Needless to say, though, Walsh had not been pleased by the fiasco that a simple recapture mission had turned into and had laid into them verbally for twenty minutes straight. The fact that she was entrusting them with this new piece of equipment either meant that she'd forgiven them or saddling them with field testing a piece of equipment that she didn't have faith in. Either way, he had his orders and tomorrow night he would carry them out and put this device through its paces.

For now, though, he'd get changed, maybe have a shower, and then go over the class schedule for tomorrow before hitting the sack. After all, he really did have the credentials to actually do his cover for real if he wanted to and, besides which, it was important to keep everyone's impression of him intact. While he was fairly certain that no one would be able to guess the truth about him, it was part of his duties as a soldier to do his duty to the best of his ability.

Now if only he could get Director Walsh to stop dumping all the assignments on him for grading he might actually get enough free time squeezed together to start a serious relationship with a certain someone.

Matters had become dangerous.

If matters had truly proceeded as it had been laid out the last time she was home then it was possible that one of the people she had met tonight was not whom they appeared to be. It was, after all, part of the plan to insert at least one of their people into every group that could, potentially be an obstacle to the overall plan. However it had been many a year since she'd last been fully aware of what was going on with regards to the mission that all those faithful to the queen had committed themselves to. Through the failure of her husband and her own choice, she had been forced to flee from her home and seek safety in the most obscure place she could find. Taking certain precautions, she had been able to blend right into the background, along with her firstborn, to the point where she had truly believed that they were safe. Now, though, she had to wonder if the veil of secrecy that had protected her and her little emerald was about to be torn asunder. If she played it safe and did her best to watch over her young one, then perhaps she could keep the charade in place long enough for those mutants to leave.

It was one of the most convenient things about living on top of unstable dimensional node that most of the detection methods used by her people were pretty much useless. Readings were often sporadic and unreliable, resulting in most agents seeking their comrades to look for behavioral clues common to their kind. Fortunately she had spent her time since her initial escape with her child doing her best to condition those expected behavioral habits out of her system, as well as the system of her offspring. While she herself could easily pick out the various traits in her pride and joy that could be compared to herself when she was that age, she was confident only those related by blood would be able to see what she saw.

In the end she could only wait to see if her love for her child was stronger than the force that would see them both dead.

_**The Next Day, X-Jet Hidden Outside of Sunnydale, Mid-Morning, Husk's P.O.V**_

"…And that's pretty much how it stands now, Miss Frost." Paige said as she looked at the image of the co-headmaster of the Xavier Institute, "They've managed to get a rough idea of who Xander got changed into but finding out who did it to him and if the process can be reversed could take a while."

"Did Mr. Giles give any sort of estimate?" Emma asked professionally from her location at the Institute.

"No, but considering how little he has to work with, I wouldn't hold my breath for a quick resolution to this," she replied, thinking about how long it took for the X-Men to solve a mess like this.

"I see," stated the former White Queen of the Hellfire Club. "Do you believe that Alexander will choose to remain in his hometown until the issue is resolved?"

_Shoulda seen this comin'!_ She thought as her earlier gut feeling was proven correct.

Ever since Harris arrived at the Institute he'd been making waves and delivering one shock after another. She herself had to admit that the guy had a knack for pullin' off miracles and thanks to these little surprises he was a pretty hot topic amongst the student body especially the female half. She'd caught no less than eight separate teenage girls at the Institute giving him looks that could only be described as the beginnings of a serious schoolgirl crush. In the case of Ms. Frost though she suspected that the woman planned on grooming the young man to either lead his own team of young mutants or to perhaps take over for Surge in the New X-Men. If there's one thing she could always say about Emma Frost it was that the woman knew how to take advantage of a good thing when such things came along. No doubt she saw the young man who single handedly rescued a busload of students, aided in the defeat of Stryker's Purifiers and proved his strength against Nimrod as a great thing indeed. A potential poster boy for the school, a rallying point for the student body and perhaps the key for the restoration of the mutant species if a way could be found to duplicate his sword's restorative powers. She had a feeling that Frost intended to make Xander her own personal project from here on out and would do her best to mould him into the perfect leader of the next generation of X-Men.

However, that objective would fall to pieces if Xander chose to stay in Sunnydale or, worse, successfully found a way to become fully human again.

"He'll likely stick around for a while, a few weeks at least, but it all depends on how quickly this 'Giles' makes progress solving the problem," she replied, deciding that lying to a telepath with as few morals as Emma wouldn't accomplish anything. "If nothing promising pops up soon then he'll probably come back to the Institute."

"Good. While I would never attempt to interfere with Alexander's desire to reclaim his old life, it'd be a shame to have such potential wasted." Frost stated, looking away from the screen for a moment as though someone else had entered the room. "Report back to me daily on the progress Mr. Giles is making and, if you would, investigate Sunnydale a bit. Nothing too invasive, of course, but rather a surface appraisal of the town."

"Why? Wasn't the whole 'fact finding' mission just a ruse so Xander could leave the Institute without too many red flags popping up?" she asked, a bit puzzled by the former White Queen's request.

"True, but that's no reason not to learn more about Alexander's home town. No doubt one of the things that might cause him to stay is the concern that his friends might need his assistance," Emma replied with a small, knowing smirk on her face. "With enough information, I may be able to persuade Tony Stark and his Initiative to assign some people to keep a close watch on Sunnydale for him. Phrased the correct way and with a promise to notify him of any serious events, it should be enough to disperse his worries concerning the safety of his friends."

"Assuming he trusts the people Stark assigns," she pointed out, making sure that the fellow blonde was aware of the flaw in her idea. "These are his friends and hometown we're talking about, Ms. Frost. He isn't going to leave them in the hands of just anyone."

"Not to worry, my dear. I already have a few possible candidates in mind and a loose framework for persuading dear Mr. Stark to agree to my idea," Headmistress Frost said without losing even an ounce of confidence.

_Guess there's no stoppin' her now that she has her mind set on it,_ she thought before saying, "Okay. I'll keep my eyes peeled for anything interestin' and make a few subtle inquiries."

"See that you do, Ms. Guthrie." Frost said before the communications connection was terminated.

_As friendly as ever._ She thought as she got up from the pilot's seat in the X-jet.

Moving to the exit ramp, she immediately began forming a plan for getting the feel of Sunnydale and what sort of questions she was going to have to wrap up in subtlety when she encountered Xander's friends. While she knew that the better way to go about things was to simply straight out ask dog boy's friends what she wanted to know, she decided to try and get her own impression of things first. After all, she didn't really know those people all that well and, while the Sesshomaru wannabe might trust them, she personally had no reason to believe they would be completely candid with her. She was just as much a stranger to them as they were to her and, thus, no trust existed between them for the honest disclosure of information. Xander had even edited out the more delicate X-Men related details from his story the previous night, showing that he understood that some secrets were not his to tell. Likewise, she suspected that any questions she asked his friends would be edited to keep sensitive information from falling into the hands of enemies. Understandable and, thus, getting the information on her own would be best and, if she ran into something a little more dangerous, she had her powers to back her up. True, there was the unfortunate side effect that using her powers often resulted in, like her clothes being shredded, leaving her nude when she returned to normal, but that was why she was making sure to bring her personalized image inducer with her.

_It takes a little planning to make sure it doesn't get damaged but it beats having to streak an entire town while I run back to my hotel room for some clothes,_ she thought as the X-Jet ramp lowered to allow her to exit the craft.

An image then came unbidden to her mind of Xander in the living room of the X-Mansion sitting on the couch only to have her enter the room, naked, before sitting down next to him. She chuckled at the reaction she was likely to get from him based on what she'd learned about the young man so far. While it was true that she too had briefly entertained entering into a relationship with Harris, given that he was closer to her age-wise than Warren had been, she'd dismissed the idea in the end. First was the fact she didn't know how long he'd be around the Institute. While she was not opposed to the idea of taking some time off from her duties to pursue a relationship, she couldn't abandon them altogether. Seeing Xander with his friends, though, had made it clear that he wouldn't abandon his friends either, making the only relationship they could have had a long distance one and those rarely worked out. The second reason was that she knew that there was already a sizeable group of young women at the Institute pondering how to make the best play for the rising star of the school. She could see the signs in Mercury and, unless she missed her guess, Dust also felt something for the transformed young man. The one that held her attention the most, though, was Laura, even though the young clone had been exhibiting behavior that implied a need to protect the young man. Odd, considering the powers that Xander had displayed since he had come to the Institute, but wanting to protect him didn't necessarily mean that relation of Wolverine had feelings for the guy.

Still, it might be a good idea to keep an eye on the girl just in case.

_**The Highway Leading to Sunnydale, Two Hours Away, Chieko's P.O.V**_

"Are we there yet?" Chieko asked for what she supposed was the fiftieth time since they'd left Los Angeles.

Not that she really cared but it gave her something to do to get back at Jakken for spouting off his tales about how great her grandfather had been. Ever since the locator spell had pointed out that Sesshomaru's possible reincarnation was now in a small town called Sunnydale, the aged toad youkai had been fully of energy, all of which he poured into talking about the past. It wasn't that she was allergic to tales about the old days where her family kicked a lot of snooty demon ass and worked their way to where they were now, but even she had her limits. Add that to the fact that youkai lived for hundreds of years and that meant that there were a lot of tales to tell and it looked like that senile old toad was going to go through all of them.

"Just another two hours, my daughter," replied her mother, who sat next to her, idly looking through the files they'd obtained on the others featured in the video clip.

The files had been delivered to their hotel room by special kitsune youkai courier just an hour before they'd left the city and since then her mother had been reading them. She knew to an untrained observer it might look like the Lady of the Western Lands was not taking the information seriously but she knew differently. One of the first things that her mother's less than loyal retainers had tried to do a century ago was to try and make her look like an idiot by poking holes in what she knew. After all, as the ruler of the Western Lands, it was required that a person be knowledgeable about a great many things from a wide variety of subjects. The idiot was apparently humiliated when not only did her mother answer every question accurately but also corrected him on one or two points. How did she do this? A great deal of reading and a photographic memory, of course! There was no magical artifact that could pour all that information into your head all at once (she knew this because she'd looked herself) and your head would probably explode if you tried. So she knew that by now her mother had committed every file she'd picked up so far to memory and intended to do the same to the rest. Personally she didn't think that this would turn out to be any different than the other missions to find her grandfather's reincarnation. While it was true that she had been excited to find that video clip of the fight in Texas, it had been more for her own benefit of trumping the other agents of her mother. Those so-called 'pure youkai', always getting on her case more than anyone else, had to eat their words when she managed to find their prey before they did.

As for whether or not this new guy really was some reborn ancestor of hers, she doubted it.

She had been too young to remember her grandfather before he died and so didn't really know him aside from the various paintings of him and Jakken's stories. It was kind of hard to get all excited about meeting someone you'd only 'known' through tales and pictures but she did her best to keep her disinterest to herself in front of her mother. It had been clear from the first time that she'd accompanied her mother on one of these little excursions that the thought of seeing her father again was enough to produce sizeable cracks in the Lady of the West's ice cold armor. She **supposed** that if it was her mother who perished and then reappeared like this, she'd be a bit of an emotional mess too. However, since that wasn't the case **now,** she would just do her best not to disrespect the whole trip and piss her mother off.

As far as the trip was concerned, the only thing she figured she'd enjoy would be to see what America was like. While living in Japan didn't mean she knew nothing about the United States of America, seeing it on television was completely different from actually being there in person. For one thing there were costumed heroes aplenty in America, whereas Japan only had a handful with most of them being in the service of the ningen government. So it'd be kinda cool to actually run into a couple and maybe spar with them a bit to see how close they match up to even a quarter youkai like herself. She knew from her glances in her mother's direction that a few of these costumed heroes were known to hang out with the latest candidate in the 'I might be Sesshomaru reborn' contest, so maybe she'd have some fun with one of them. Nothing serious, of course, and she'd probably wait until her mother had decided whether or not the young man really was her reborn father, but it was a definite possibility.

It was about an hour later though that something prickled at the edges of her hanyou senses that caused her to sit up straight and look down the highway. They were approaching something, something **foul**, and she could honestly say that she didn't like it.

"Sense it do you, daughter? The foul stench of a Hellmouth?" Asked her mother without looking away from the file in her hands.

"Hellmouth? We're going to a **Hellmouth!**" She exclaimed as all the facts about those cursed places entered her mind.

"Foolish girl! Did you not read my briefing on our destination?" Jakken said from his seat across from her own.

"Um…no?" she replied with a bit of embarrassment at her ignorance.

"Then I would suggest you read it now before we arrive," Jakken said as he passed her the briefing folder. "While no match for the daughter and grand-daughter of Lord Sesshomaru, the place is likely to be fraught with unpleasantness and potential obstacles. Better to be aware of them and know how to avoid the problems then wade through them at the risk of one's objective."

Taking the packet of papers, she began to read since, if half of what she knew about the mystical convergence was right, then it'd be good to go in informed. While there existed no such anomaly in Japan, she'd heard tales of youkai who had been to a few of the weaker ones elsewhere and didn't like the info one bit. According to them, walking through an area with a Hellmouth beneath one was like strolling through a stinky swamp both in terms of smell as well as how it felt on a youkai's skin. Normal humans didn't notice a thing, given how numb most of their senses were when compared to those possessed by youkai, but for those with a little something extra to them it was obvious. Add to that the fact that the riff-raff and jerks of the demon world tended to flock to those locations and she'd be surprised if they managed to leave without getting into at least one fight. One or more demons would get it into their heads to either challenge them or make fun of youkai and then it'd be show time in the ICU hotel. They wouldn't actually kill any of them out of hand, just in case one of them turned out to be the spawn of someone important, but they'd at least teach the idiots a lesson in respect.

Demons, of course, wouldn't be the only problem as ningen sorcerers often visited these places as well looking to tap into the leaking energy from the dimensional tear to increase their strength. It led to odd spells with unusual, but sometimes serious, consequences. Considering that they'd only chosen to go there recently, it was unlikely that the senile old toad youkai had been able to find out everything about the place, so it was entirely possible they could be walking into trouble. A sorcerer could be in the process of carrying out a dangerous ceremony or something and they'd probably get caught up in it somehow. It was an unfortunate thing she'd noticed about her bloodline, but they seemed to have a knack for finding interesting situations to get mixed up in. Some might dismiss it as just random coincidence or something like that, but the sheer number of times they'd been at key events in history was too many to ignore.

_Good thing that the same phenomena that seems to get us mixed up in those things also seems to want to keep us alive. _She thought as she continued to read. _Don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing._

From what she could read, it wasn't entirely a bad time to visit Sunnydale since the former top dog of the place, the warlock Richard Wilkins, had been slain, resulting in serious disruption amongst the local demons. They were still in the middle of regrouping and establishing a new pecking order amongst their numbers, so the odds of a co-ordinated problem from them. Also, if the reports were anything to be believed, then they were too early in the seasonal pattern of this Hellmouth for a new baddie to have moved in. So long as they didn't stick around the place too long, then there was a good chance they could escape getting caught up in someone else's mess. About the only thing that they might not be able to avoid was the fact that there was apparently a Slayer in town that had quite the track record. The Master of Aurelius, the Judge, Acathla and quite a few other big names in the demon world had all been slain by the young woman. While this didn't necessarily mean that the ningen warrior would be able to fare as well against her or her mother, it did mean that a fight with the girl would be troublesome.

_Oh who cares! It'll take an hour, tops, after meeting this guy for Mom to tell that he's a fraud and then tear him to ribbons,_ she thought dismissively as she put aside the folder. _Then we can head back home._

_**The Streets of Sunnydale, Forty-Five Minutes Later, Xander's P.O.V**_

"So what do you guys think of my hometown so far?" he asked as they strolled through the streets while doing their best to ignore the looks they were receiving from some people.

It had been a couple of hours since they'd left the motel they'd shacked up in and he'd done his best to show the people from the Xavier Institute around town. While some people might have found it a bit weird to show people the locations where various paranormal or apocalyptic events happened, but it beat the usual dime tour the uninformed civilians got. If you took away the supernatural elements, Sunnydale was pretty much the sleepy place that Wilkins had tried to make it look like while secretly making it a theme park for demons. If he wanted to keep their attention for any length of time, he had to do his best to keep them interested and tales of the Incan Mummy girl, along with some of the more notable vamp stakings, would certainly do the job. So far he'd taken them through some of the more noteworthy cemetery locations and now was leading them to the remains of Sunnydale High School. True, they'd have to watch their steps since, last time he checked, the place was still a mass of shattered concrete and burned academic remains, but given the workouts in the Danger Room, he didn't see this being a problem.

"It's like some stupid sci-fi TV show around here," Hellion said, shaking his head in disbelief. "Every week's a new trip on the wacky side of things!"

"I must admit, it seems odd that so many dangerous things could happen and not be noticed by the world." Dust said in her usual modest way as she looked about the place.

"Well, up until last June, the town was pretty much being run by a warlock by the name of Richard Wilkins. He'd founded this town to serve as the foundation for his attempt at Ascension to true demonhood," he replied as they turned the corner to see the school no more than five blocks away. "I didn't get the details but Giles figured that Wilkins must've cast some kind of spell on the town so that anyone who became an official resident would rationalize away anything supernatural. It didn't work on everyone and, once you know the truth, it went away."

"Then why did you not try to show everyone the truth?" Dust asked, following the line of logic in her mind.

"Because not everyone can handle it," he replied, trying to not sound like the answer was as obvious as the sun above their heads. "Some might adapt and learn to live with the fact that there are things that go bump in the night. Most, though, would panic and start looking around at everyone, wondering who they could trust and whether or not someone they trusted was real or just a demon in disguise. Until ways can be invented to tell everyone who's who and what's what, it's best to keep people on a need-to-know basis."

It wasn't the nicest response but it was a fact that, with most of the world viewing vampires, demons and magic as being nonsense, there'd be a panic if it was all suddenly revealed to be true. Those in the know would be fine since they'd have books and scrolls to tell them the good from the bad but the uninformed would be utterly clueless. Most would probably believe whatever they saw in the movies whereas others would probably go looking for any book they could find, resulting in the book companies putting out a crap to fact ratio of ten to one. All in all, things were better off going on as they were right now with a group of competent people leading the fight against the darkness rather than letting amateurs get involved.

"In any case, say hello to the site of the battle between the class of 1999 and the newly Ascended Mayor Richard Wilkins the First, Second and Third," he said, throwing out his arms like he was doing a big unveiling. "Took loading the school with dynamite and homemade fertilizer bombs, but we did it. My finest work, if I do say so myself!"

Looking at the others, he could tell that they were only marginally impressed with the ruins that used to be Sunnydale High School but he hadn't expected much more than that. After all, these were people with their own Danger Room and, since they'd formed the New X-Men they'd, seen enough booms to desensitize them to destruction. So, without further ado, he led them into the school, warning them to watch their steps, and began pointing out various points of interest. The place where the Scoobies faced off against Amy's mother, the principal's office where Hyena possessed teens ate Principal Flutie, the basement where the prehistoric bazor was being dug out and many other places that held memories for him. Naturally he omitted those events that either put him in a bad light or made Deadboy look good, but what they didn't know wouldn't hurt him. It only took them about an hour to go to all the places in the school where something bizarre happened and he could tell that they were stunned at all the things he'd gone through before graduating.

"I never thought I'd meet someone who's had a weirder school life than me, but now I have!" Hellion declared, shaking his head before taking a parting look at the ruined high school.

"Definitely beats any stories of the schools I've been to," Mercury said, nodding in agreement at the oddness of it all. "Well, with the exception of the Institute. I doubt this high school had armed militia's attacking it or mutant supremacist groups pressuring you to join up with them."

"Well the closest thing to a militia that ever attacked this place would have been the local vamps when they're after my friends and me," he said as they stepped onto the sidewalk in front of the school walls and began to head towards The Bronze. "As for supremacist groups… well, you could almost stick that to the vamps too, kinda."

"Kinda?" asked Hellion, who seemed to be shaking off the wierdness of everything he'd been shown and told.

"Well, demons, as a general rule, tend to think of themselves as the top of the food chain and we humans are pretty much Happy Meals on legs to them. Plus, with all the vamps me and the gang dusted over the past three years, odds are they have a recruitment drive every once and awhile." He replied, thinking about his answer for a minute before speaking. "So, from a certain point of view, I suppose you could say that they're a supremacist group that pressure's people to join them. The thing is it's not really you joining up but rather your bodies with new demon spirits behind the wheel."

None of the mutants commented on that and he didn't blame them.

It was as they were about to leave for the area of town where The Bronze was located that a scent wafted past his nose and caused his mind to freeze with recognition. It wasn't so much that he could put a name or a memory to the scent, but rather an overwhelming sense of familiarity and… kinship? He had the strangest feeling that to whomever or whatever this scent belonged to family, or someone as close to him as family. However, since he was never one to recognize anyone by scent alone previous to his transformation, it was a good bet that these feelings were tied to his Sesshomaru half. Did this mean that his transformation went beyond the physical and into the mental? If that was the case, he would be wise to watch himself more closely to make sure these foreign impulses or sensations didn't get the better of him. He was about to refocus on getting to The Bronze when he noticed that Laura had stopped moving and was sniffing the air with her hyper-senses.

"Something wrong, Laura?"

"There is an unusual scent on the air," she replied, looking around and sniffing until she stopped her movement.

"Well, this is a Hellmouth," he said, trying to determine if Laura was really sensing what he was. "There's no telling what you're smelling."

"Whatever it is, it's coming this way," Laura said, tensing up as though preparing to fight. "And there is more than one source."

That pretty much settled things for him.

He wasn't certain how but somehow the clone of Wolverine had picked out the source of the scent that was so messing with his mind. Deciding that with his friend determined to confront, he followed her lead and he checked to make sure that one of the three swords he had hidden beneath his coat was ready to be drawn. Giles had wanted him to give the swords over so that more research could be done on them but a strange inner compulsion refused to allow them out of his hands. It was like each blade contained a part of his soul and to be parted with them would be nothing short of sheer torture for him. The hilt was carefully concealed beneath the coat so that it would take standing at the right angle across from him to see anything but, at the same time, he'd have no trouble drawing it if necessary. He hoped that a fight wouldn't become necessary since that would only make things more complicated for everyone. With Wilkins gone, the people of Sunnydale were bound to be less oblivious to the bizarre and strange than they were when the warlock was alive. If that was indeed the case, then depending on the severity of the collapse of the oblivious area affect spell, the locals might brush it off like they'd done for the past hundred years or the opposite might happen. They could call the cops, notify the state authorities and likely get the Fifty State Initiative involved, leaving nothing but a certifiable mess that he just knew would be blamed on him.

It was odd that when his nose told him that the source should be close that, instead of someone walking out of an alleyway, down a sidewalk or even stepping off a rooftop, it turned out that it was a fancy looking car that emitted the strangely familiar odors. Watching the vehicle carefully as it approached, he tried to sift through the scents he was taking in to at least determine if he'd be getting any trouble from the occupants of the vehicle. He could tell almost immediately that two of the scents belonged to females while the other smelled like a moss covered rock. He might have been able to relax had he not been able to ascertain that none of the ladies were completely human and the source of the moss smell definitely wasn't human. All during this, though, the feeling of a familial connection to two of the scents increased as the distance between him and the sources decreased. Quite frankly, it was driving him bananas not being able to put a name or a face to what he was feeling and he'd be quite happy when he could finally fill in all the blanks.

He should really be more careful what he wished for.

As though he indeed had been the target from the beginning, the car pulled up in front of him and the others, causing just about everyone to take a conservative step back. Given what the past couple of weeks had been like for them, their caution was perfectly justified and so they watched as the driver's side door opened to reveal a fancy-looking chauffer. Near as he could tell, the driver was human but that didn't necessarily warrant the lowering of the threat level since plenty of evil beings employed humans as servants. The man walked to the left rear passenger door and like, a dutiful manservant, opened it to allow the person who was most likely his boss to exit the vehicle. The first thing that he noticed as a figure stepped out was the two dog-like ears that poked out of a mass of snow white hair. The sight of this caused the feelings of familial familiarity to spike as an expectation arose within him that was mixed with a bit of animosity and respect hummed beneath the surface. However, once the person fully stepped out and turned to face him, he became besieged with a new emotion of sorrow-filled fondness that both warmed his heart and caused it to pulse briefly with pain. It was not a young man that his gut had been expecting to see, but rather a young woman who physically looked to be a couple of years older than him. Dressed in mix of clothes that was half like his Sesshomaru uniform and half modern business woman, she practically screamed upper class. Yet, at the same time, he couldn't help but think that the icy expression she had pasted on her face was somehow inappropriate for her.

Kinda like how he'd react if Laura started acting like a ditzy cheerleader; it was just wrong to him somehow.

Stepping out behind Ms. Business Woman, though, was someone closer to his own age in appearance but, unlike the older woman, was dressed more like your typical teenage girl. She definitely wasn't human either, judging from the way her ears were curved on the side of her head and, unless his eyes needed a check-up, there was quite a bit of white fur on those ears as well. With a set of earphones in her ears and an iPod in her hand, he was willing to wager that the teenage girl was only half paying attention to what was going on. If Ms. Business Woman turned out to be either her mother or an older sister, he knew it wouldn't be too long before the earphones got ripped out and the iPod got tossed into a purse or something. However, when the older of the two walked around to his side of the car, he felt something within his mind begin to fight its way to the surface. It was like a prairie dog digging its way through the dirt and sand that made up its mind in its quest for the surface. When the woman finally got close to him, to the point where they were standing less than two feet from one another, a word flowed outwards from his lips that he had not spoken before but, nonetheless, felt a profound connection to.

"Lotus," he whispered with a feeling imbued in the word that was recognizable to any child who possessed a loving parent that thought the world of them.

Apparently he hadn't whispered it quietly enough because, almost the second the word left his mouth, Ms. Business Woman's eyes softened up with an almost joyful light in them before turning back to cold unforgiving ice. He could tell just from that that something freaky was about to occur and, considering what Mr. Murphy had given him lately, it'd have to surpass all previous wierdness by quite a bit.

"At last we meet, Alexander LaVelle Harris," Ms. Business Woman said in cold tones that he'd never quite heard before in his life. "My name is Lady Tsukiko of the Western Lands and I have come here on a matter of some importance. Would it be possible to speak with you in private? This is not a matter that concerns your associates."

_Of the Western Lands? That sounds awfully like what Giles was describing about that Sesshomaru guy,_ he thought as he pondered the older woman's request. _G-Man did say that the guy I got turned into was the ruler of the youkai in the western regions of Japan. Coincidence? I doubt it._

The question, though, was whether or not he should go along with the woman for a private chit-chat or if he should insist on her speaking her piece out in the open. In the end there really was no choice. If the two hanyou (a word his Sesshomaru half had supplied for him) were even half as strong as he was, then pissing them off would not be a good idea. It would lead to fighting, which would lead to property destruction as well as the endangerment of noncombatants, which would inevitably lead to a team from the fifty state Initiative coming roaring in. In short, it'd be one big mess that he was sure every seasoned superhero would tell him could have been avoided if he'd just conceded to a private chit-chat.

Turning to the others he said, "How about you guys go on ahead to The Bronze and I'll catch up with you later? It's on the corner of Joss Avenue and Brendon Street. Okay?"

The others looked like they'd be willing to go along with that but he could tell by Laura's stance and the fact that her muscles weren't relaxing (not that they ever did completely) that she wasn't quite willing to leave him alone with these two. It was oddly nice that she seemed to have developed a more than mission-oriented connection to him but right now he needed her to go with the others. The only question, of course, was how to do so and not ruin what progress the young woman had made to being more than just a weapon to be fired.

"Don't worry, Laura. You've seen what I can do," he said firmly but also in an 'I am your friend' sort of way. "If something happens, I'll be fine."

The sister/daughter of Wolverine looked a little reluctant but eventually she slipped into a more at ease stance before nodding at him once and moving to go with the others. He just hoped that he really could handle himself if these two decided to pull something, otherwise he'd just screwed himself and not in any way that could be described as pleasant. Taking a deep breath, he decided to get the ball rolling by asking the next logical question.

"So where exactly do you want to have this chat?"

"The ruins of this ningen school should be sufficient once the right wards are in place," came a high pitched voice that made him think of Andrew Wells after the nerd had inhaled a little bit too much helium. "It will protect us against all manner of surveillance devices and scrying spells. No one will be able to overhear or even see what is going on inside."

Looking for the source of the voice, his eyes came upon what he could only describe as Kermit the Frog's grandfather dressed in a weird hat he somehow knew was called a tate-eboshi, a kosode, nu-bakama and something called a jo-e no sode-gukuri no o. In simple English terms, though, it looked like a toad demon dressed in clothes of a Japanese Feudal Era Court attendant like the ones he'd seen watching badly dubbed samurai flicks with Jesse years ago. The little green guy also had some sort of wooden staff in his hand that had a leather hood over the top, but it was kind of comical since the thing was easily two or three times larger than him. He could only do one thing and, strangely enough, his Sesshomaru side was completely in agreement with him.

Without another word or any sort of acknowledgement of the toad youkai, he turned towards the ruins of Sunnydale High School hoping that his world wasn't heading for another serious disruption.

_**Ten Minutes Later, Inside the Warded Ruins of Sunnydale High School, Lady Tsukiko's P.O.V**_

_He knew that name!_ She thought as she waited for Jaken to return from placing the talismans that made up the wards that would keep others from spying on things. _The name that my father liked to call me!_

While others had managed to somehow learn bits and pieces of personal information that existed between her father and her, this was something that every last one of the previous imposters had failed to bring up. In fact, it was the thing that tipped her off that the last one was a fake when, instead of saying that her nickname was Lotus, he had claimed it was snowflake.

Suffice it to say he learned the error of his ways… right before she cut him in half from balls to brain.

This latest hopeful for the 'he really IS Sesshomaru' contest had earned himself some credibility with his uttering of the correct father-daughter name but still she would hold back the feelings bubbling within her. She had to be CERTAIN! If she, in her haste to once again embrace her father, wound up accepting a fake rather than the genuine article, then there was no telling the damage that would be done to her family's good name and holdings. She knew of at least three demon clans and two amoral humans who would have loved to get their hands on what she'd inherited from her father and she'd be damned to the underworld for all eternity before she let them win. There were several other tests he would have to pass before she would be convinced to her satisfaction that this was indeed her father reborn. Hearing the ever familiar sounds of Jaken returning, she turned to the person with the physical appearance of her father and steeled herself for the testing that was about to occur.

"It was roughly two weeks ago that you were transformed into your present form, was it not?" She asked rhetorically since she already knew the truth. "What can you remember of that night?"

"Not much after I fell into the burning restaurant," Harris replied after a moment of contemplation. "The best way I could describe it was… a feeling, like I'd met someone l knew or heard of and then the words '_Welcome back to the land of the living, Sesshomaru._' That's all I can remember before I woke up like this."

This fit with what that so-called Lord of Vengeance Demons had mentioned in the letter he'd sent her the very night that he claimed he'd paid his debt to her family. It was a little odd that the person before her couldn't recall the entire conversation that had taken place between him and D'Hoffryn but that could be explained away by the trauma of the event. This did, however, add further credibility to this candidate's status since the talisman that had been entrusted to the ruler of the Vengeance Demons had been enchanted so that, only if certain criteria were met, would it perform its assigned task. However, as she knew from studying the various elements of magic, no spell was completely foolproof and there were ways to manipulate spell criteria to one's only advantage. Also she knew that the three swords of her father were coveted by many of the demon community and they would no doubt devote much of their resources if they thought they could pry them from the talisman. Therefore, while this improved Alexander Harris' standing, it did not necessarily seal the deal and so she would continue with the testing.

"Did you gain anything else aside from the body?" She asked, watching him carefully for any visual clue that he was deceiving her.

"Some odd feelings and compulsions. Like this one time I felt compelled to use one of the swords I got that night," Alexnader replied, showing a bit of confusion but no true deceit. "It felt like it was pulsing, as though it had a will of its own, and when I used it, it was like I'd done it a dozen times before."

_One of the swords acknowledged him!_ She thought with surprise although she kept it from her face, _Could it really be…?_

It was a well-known fact among her family that the swords of her father could not be used by just anyone who picked them up. Even those who understood how they worked could not use their awesome power unless the possessed one specific ingredient: blood. More specifically, they needed to be of a specific bloodline in order for the swords to be used to their fullest potential. Therefore, if Harris had indeed used one of the swords as he described, then some part of him was indeed of her clan. However this too could be forged to one degree or another using a mix of sorcery and ningen science. In the end she was forced to concede that there was only one way to really determine if the person in front of her was her reborn father or not.

"Jaken. Chieko. It's time for the final test," she said without turning to face the two people behind her.

"Gotcha," Cheiko said in her usual teenage manner.

"As you wish, my Lady." Jaken said with only half as much bootlicking as he used to do, if the stories she'd been told were true.

Once her hanyou sense of hearing told her that the two most precious people to her were safely outside of the building, she focused her mind on the young man in front of her.

"What is this final test?" Alexander asked, tensing up due to the departure of her entourage.

"When I was young, my father and I often sparred together so that I could become stronger and, thus, be more able to succeed him when the time came," she replied as she covertly began inching her hands to the hilts that lay beneath the back of her jacket. "The last time we sparred, even though I am only half inu youkai, I was able to fight him to a standstill for a full fifteen minutes before he finally defeated me. It is time to see if you can do this as well!"

Inside of two seconds she was halfway across the room with her twin kodachi unsheathed and poised to draw blood unless the one wearing the face of her father showed her his strength. There was a look of shock on his face but he didn't let it hinder his evasive movements as he leapt clear of her first slash and slid to the side to keep from being hit by the second. This was good but, at the moment, she was moving at just above what was considered to be the maximum allotted to the human species with dedicated training. This merely meant he wasn't a mere fool that had brains enough to look like her father but possess no combat skills whatsoever. Now, however, she would have to take matters up a notch to see if he possessed a power beyond that of a well-trained human as well as knowledge of how to fight a battle as a youkai. Infusing her blades with youki, she cut loose with a series of energy blades that flew through the air towards Harris at super human speeds. She had thought that he'd dodge once again, hopefully with speed superior to anything that could be done by a ningen, but, in a move that surprised her, he instead drew a sword from beneath his coat and, in a flash of energy, he smacked her attacks aside with the now-awakened Tetsusaiga. Now that she could see for herself his use of one of her father's sword, she had to admit that she was leaning towards the weapon being the genuine article rather than a fake. Even if one had the skill to enchant a blade to visually mimic one of her father's sword, it would take something strong indeed to so completely deflect a volley of energy blades from her.

Still, would it be able to endure her assaults forever?

Pushing her body up another level, she got in close to him and attempted to pierce his defenses with the blades themselves rather than energy like her last attack. His movements were a step above someone who'd never held a sword before but she could see signs of some of his moves being reflex rather than conscious thought. Such movements would not avail him forever as the blade he wielded was more akin to a broadsword than anything else and, thus, while it was more powerful than her kodachi, it was slower than what she wielded. This was proven seconds later when she succeeded in drawing blood from his upper left arm, even though the wound itself wasn't all that deep in the first place. She could only presume that he had seen the attack coming soon enough to evade some but not all of it. However this damaged his standing as her potential reborn father since she had never drawn such blood from her father during their sparring sessions. At most she had been able to damage his clothes when they fought and, even then, she had wondered to herself if he hadn't allowed her to do so just to keep her from being discouraged. Was Harris doing something similar because, deep down, he really **was** her father?

_Only one way to find out,_ she thought as she kept his blows at bay. _I have to provoke him into going all out rather than just defending or evading._

"Perhaps this is a waste of my time," she said as she took a moment to step backwards and held the fight. "Or perhaps you simply need better motivation. Perhaps I should ask your friends from earlier."

This was responded to with the traditional male response of a full frontal assault but, as a side effect, he was moving much differently than before, with more purpose and, as a result, she was getting what she desired. His speed had easily doubled, if not tripled, and when she brought both kodachi up to block his strike, she found his strength had increased as well. She actually felt the ground beneath her crack up a bit under the strain of the attack but this was nothing she couldn't deal with. Positioning her blades just right, she routed his power off to the side while she spun in the opposite direction, forcing him to expose himself to an attack from her. However he recovered admirably by leaping clear of her attack before he did something that almost completely cleared her mind of any doubts as to who she was fighting.

"KAZE NO KIZU!"

Now it was she who was forced to evade for, even with her skill, trying to endure or neutralize the Wind Scar technique head on would injure her too much… plus it would damage her clothes and that couldn't be allowed, considering how she had to appear at all times.

Leaping clear of the attack, she was stunned to find him almost immediately back in close to her, implying that he not only landed after executing the Kaze no Kizu but crossed the space between the two of them in the exact amount of time it took her to get to her present position. Unable to evade mid-air and too close to him for her to use youki-based attacks, she could only bring up her blades once again to block. It was just as she began to feel the impact from his strike that she realized one very important fact about her current predicament; since she was mid-air, there was nothing for her to brace up against and all the power from his attack was going to be transferred to her, transforming her into a hanyou projectile. With no way to evade and nothing to brace herself against, all she could do was prepare herself for the pain and think up new ways to send it right back at him.

She severely underestimated the strength he would put behind the blow.

Instead of the power simply being enough to knock her to the ground or through a single wall, she instead went through three before hitting one of the few main exterior walls that was more or less intact. The **power** behind that blow was far above what Alexander had employed before and was definitely more than she could match on her own. Hearing the sounds of feet crunching on stone, wood and glass, she looked up at the dust clouds that had been kicked up to see two glowing crimson red eyes moving towards her. When the dust blew away, she could see that, just as she'd thought, the eyes were revealed to belong to Alexander LaVelle Harris. However he didn't have a look of rage on his face as she'd expected but rather one she often saw in the mirror whenever she tried to imitate her father before going into a meeting. It was the face of someone who was seized within such an icy fury that it only looked as though they were without emotion but if you looked into their eyes you could see the truth.

"I can forgive much, Ms. Tsukiko. I can forgive strangers coming to ask me personal questions. I can forgive you attacking me without proper cause," Harris said in a voice that could freeze molten lava if there'd been any around at the moment. "The one thing I cannot forgive though is threatening those I call friend, even if it was only an implied threat."

Looking a bit downwards, she could see that he still held the Tetsusaiga in his right hand but at the moment it was held in an at ease position that implied that he didn't intend to use it just yet. However that could change in an instant with the emotions rolling around inside and she wasn't sure just what might set him off. It was then that she was shocked then when he sheathed his sword with shriek of steel against steel as the fang once more became a battered looking katana.

"However, as this is the first time we have met, I will let you off the hook this once." Harris said as he turned away from her so he could leave. "Don't cross my path anytime soon."

Seeing him walk away she could, for a second or two, see her father in the way he moved and, in a flash of insight that must have come from the heavens themselves, she knew the truth.

He really **was** her father!

"Wait! Give me a moment to explain my actions!" She yelled, dropping all pretenses at mimicking the behavior of her father in desperation. "Please!"

She held her breath as he paused in mid-step before turning halfway to face her.

"You have two minutes. Make it good." Alexan—no her father, Sesshomaru, commanded with golden eyes rather than glowing red ones locked on her position.


	7. Things that make you think

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted materials contained herein. They are the rightful property of their respective creators and associated companies. I make no money off of this whatsoever. I write for fun and for the enjoyment of those who like reading my work.

_**The Bronze, Forty-Five Minutes Later, Laura's P.O.V**_

Xander was late.

She might not have known anything about the topic the strange woman wished to speak with him about, the one he referred to as Lotus, but her scenario analytical skills told her that nothing but the most serious topics should be taking this long. Judging from the momentary show of emotion on the older woman's face, one that apparently more used to revealing nothing, it was most definitely something of serious nature. Was it serious enough to warrant violence? Insufficient information. If violence did ensue, she was uncertain as to what the most likely outcome would be. She had not been able to observe much of the movements of the three strangers, so she was unable to determine their threat level. Still, she knew enough about her friend's offensive and defensive capabilities to be able to conclude that he would be a formidable foe for anyone to defeat. With enhanced physical capabilities on par with the more experienced X-Men, a regenerative healing factor comparable to her own and swords of significant offensive power, she was confident that he could handle much. If by some chance he was indeed of danger of being killed, she was confident that they would have heard something suspicious should they be anywhere within the city limits.

Unless the older threat had ended the fight swiftly in one strike before Xander could bring his own power to bear against her.

Unlikely, but still possible since she had devised a few scenarios like that herself.

Just in case it became necessary.

"Don't worry, Laura," Julian said as he took another sip of his drink. "If the guy can survive getting his arm blown off then he should have no trouble dealing with those three."

"Keep it down, Keller!" Mercury said in a hushed voice before quietly looking around. "The owner of the place is just looking for a reason to toss us out of this place!"

That was true.

When they had arrived at the club, they had been a bit surprised to find out that it served as a night club after sunset but a restaurant during the day. Apparently, due to local PCP gang problem at night, some people were being scared off and thus night time attendance was low, forcing the owner to resort to being a restaurant during the day to make everything work out. This had worked out for them since they'd get to see the interior of a place they'd only heard of secondhand through Xander. However it was proven that even here in Sunnydale, the stigma of being a mutant was still something they would have to deal with. Even with some of the precautions Cessily took to minimize the visibility of her liquid metal skin, the other patrons were still watching them with suspicion. The waiter that had asked them what drinks they wanted in a manner that could be best described as being with the absolute least amount of politeness that he could safely get away with. Based on her observations of the owner, though, she'd wager that the waiter could have openly used words like 'mutie' or 'freak' when addressing them and not been in any trouble with his boss. Still, they were getting served and weren't being treated in such a way that they couldn't put up with. Until something was done that warranted a more hostile response. it would be best to just blend in and not cause any trouble. This was. after all. Xander's hometown and so it would not be good for a friend of his to cause him trouble or shorten their visit so much that their friend couldn't get the info he wanted.

Nevertheless he was late.

Just as she was about to begin thinking up scenarios in which she could sneak away from the others so she could go find her friend her nose picked up a scent that dispelled her concern. Turning to the door, it opened to reveal the object of her concern walked in and immediately she began to make a visual analysis of his person. There was nothing too distressing, just some dirt on his clothes, until she spotted the telltale signs of a sword cut as well as a bit of crimson blood spattered near the place where the blade did cut. This caused her eyes to narrow and her mind to review every bit of information she had on the two strange-smelling females that Xander had gone to speak with back at the school. If it turned out that they meant further harm to her friend, she would pay them a visit while the others slept. If, however, Harris managed to dispatch them, then the matter would end there, except she would silently make sure not to leave him by himself again in the future.

"So what did Dog Girl One and Dog Girl Two want, Xan?" Hellion asked as the unofficial member of the New X-Men sat down at the table.

"Well, it turns out that they had a lot of the answers that I came here looking to get from Giles," Xander replied, obviously trying to decide a few things in his head. "According to them, I'm some sort of reincarnated Feudal Lord inu daiyoukai named Sesshomaru that they've been seeking for over a century. They contracted out, funded their own investigations and apparently have gone through quite a few imposters before finally meeting me. The whole discussion they had with me was some sort of final exam to find out if I was the real deal or just some imposter looking to weasel my way into riches and power."

"It involved fighting?" she asked, pointing out the damage done to the upper left arm of his coat.

"Yeah. Apparently just knowing a few interesting things isn't enough to make the grade," Harris replied, trying to sound like the cut was nothing. "So we fought a bit and apparently putting her through a couple of walls was enough to convince her that I was this reborn Sesshomaru."

He was not telling them everything.

Since the day she first met him and came to the conclusion that she would be interacting with him quite often, she had done her best to memorize certain 'tells' that her friend possessed. The ones he was exhibiting now were indicative of withholding certain facts and a desire to terminate the conversation as soon as possible. It was possible that he merely considered the discussion private and not for their ears but it was equally possible that the young man didn't want to worry them needlessly. Until she learned more on her own, she would not press him for more information. She… trusted him in that she believed he would inform the rest of them should what he learned somehow involve or concern them.

"So you're like this reborn nobleman?" Cessily asked tentatively with a pinch of hope in her voice.

This was likely because it was a stereotypical fantasy of most teenage Americans to be involved in a romantic relationship with a male their own age but of high social stature. She was not oblivious to the fact that several of the young women at the Xavier Institute gave off scents of interest and arousal when around Xander. None had made their intentions known as of yet but she believed it was only a matter of time before some of them attempt to begin romantic relations with him. She was… uncertain as to how she would react to that when it happened. She was uncertain as to how she felt with regards to her friend and whether it could be defined as friendship or something… more. She had been a weapon for The Facility for so long, all she knew was what they had taught her and all she could feel was what they had trained her to feel. It had all been focused on what could be of use to her on a mission or increase her effectiveness as a weapon, so that she would never fail in her assigned mission. Now that she was… free, she was no longer was restrained by the barriers that The Facility placed on her behavior and she was finding herself experiencing odd sensations and emotions that she had no word for. It was… disorienting feeling these things and not being able to identify them like she could most firearms and covert surveillance equipment. At the same time she was occasionally pleased by the new sensations and sometimes desired to feel them again if at all possible.

It was odd that most of the pleasant feelings she experienced tended to happen when Xander was around.

"Sounds like it. I'm still not sure if I completely buy what Tsukiko told me but a lot of it matches with what I've experienced firsthand," Harris said as he glanced about the Bronze for a moment. "For one thing, I now know both the names and abilities of the three swords I have now. The first is called Tetsusaiga and is capable of unleashing a wave of energy capable of killing a hundred demons in one swing. The next is the Bakusaiga, also capable of killing large numbers of demons in a single swing but possessing a side effect that negates the healing factor of anything that gets cut by the blade. The third, and the one you guys are probably interested in, is the Tenseiga, since it possesses the ability to heal almost any wound and revive the dead. Unfortunately, that latter ability comes with one helluva catch: the Tenseiga can only revive the dead once. If someone revived by the sword dies a second time, it can't pull off a repeat performance."

This was interesting information but she covertly looked around to see if there was anyone paying an unusual amount of attention to their location and, thus, their conversation. Data was always a key part of any mission and if there existed unknown enemies in the building, this information could prove damaging to Xander's combat effectiveness. There were eight civilians and five employees that she could see, with the possibility of there being at least six more of each placed somewhere in the building. Of those that were visible to her eyes, none of them seemed to be trying to eavesdrop on the conversation but that didn't necessarily mean anything. A skilled operative would be able to blend into the background, looking for the world like he was in a world of his/her own when in fact they'd be committing every word to memory. Taking a brief sniff with her nose, she could sense none of the scents that usually accompanied those adept at gathering information for intelligence agencies. Still, that meant nothing since, if they could be detected, then they wouldn't have their jobs in the first place since data gathering worked best when you went undetected. Still, until a more concrete sign presented itself, she could do nothing beyond being watchful for signs of surveillance.

"Then the people from the bus attack…?" Mercury asked, realizing the implications of the limitations of the Tenseiga.

"If they're killed again, I won't be able to bring them back." Xander said, confirming her suspicions.

"Then we will simply make sure that no one else dies while we can do something to prevent it." Dust declared with conviction in every word she spoke.

"Damn straight!" Keller declared, adding her support to Sooraya's statement.

"Anything else is unacceptable," she said, voicing her commitment to the objective.

"Well then, I guess that settles it," Xander stated with his standard lopsided grin. "Let the baddies beware!"

_**That Evening, The Northern Edge of UC Sunnydale Campus, Buffy's P.O.V**_

_I hope Willow and Xander can make it tonight,_ Buffy thought as she strolled down one of the numerous walkways that made up UC Sunnydale. _Then it'll be just like old times… until Xander leaves with his friends._

That was one of the things that she feared might happen if something didn't happen on Giles' research session really soon. That was why Xander had come back to Sunnydale for in the first place after all, and while she'd like to think he would stay once he got his info, she couldn't help but notice his new friends. Four girls and one guy, all of which seemed to be pretty chummy with Xander given that they'd only known him for a couple of weeks at the most. Not that it had exactly taken her a long time to become friends with him when they first met back in high school but the five of them were acting like they'd known Xan for years. Still, aside from getting a little too cozy with her Xander-shaped friend, they seemed cool enough so, until they started hogging him during his time there, she'd keep her metaphorical claws in.

Of course, if by some chance he didn't show up for patrol tonight and she found out that he'd been with them instead, that would be a whole different story.

It was about three minutes later that she felt the familiar feeling of being watched crawl up and down her back but, like many times before, she didn't let on that she knew it. It had happened more than a few times before since she'd become a Slayer, so it didn't affect her all that much. Instead it actually improved her mood a bit since it meant an end to the boredom that was aimless walking around waiting for, or, in some cases, looking for, demons in need of slaying. She wasn't sure, though, how many there were or what breed of demon, but she was sure if she took this to a more secluded area they'd come out of hiding thinking that it was their lucky day. She supposed it was one of the benefits of the Slayer, looking like your everyday girl rather than some huge Amazon with muscles poking out everywhere. The demons never thought that they were hunting another hunter and so, when they made the choice to pounce, they got one helluva surprise in the form of a wooden stake to the chest or suddenly finding themselves a head short. Looking about, she didn't see a lot of options that were out of the way enough that she could deal with her stalkers without the possibility of an innocent person getting in the way. Fortunately, before her patience or that of her followers ran out, she spotted what looked like an unused clearing that might have been set up as a picnic site at some point in the past. It wasn't as far from the buildings as she'd like but it would have to do since demons tended to be an impatient lot and she doubted they'd wait much longer before making their move on her.

Casually moving towards the picnic spot, she thought she heard her stalkers arguing with each other but she couldn't quite make out what they were saying. Still, that could work in his favor since demons that didn't get along together couldn't fight well together and that meant the odds of them all working to make her R.I.P. was more than cut in half. If she could truly piss them all off then she'd pretty much have the battle all but won except for the messy parts and the blood. Once she reached the border of picnic site, she ran inside like scared little bunny rabbit, knowing that this would only lure her pursuers in like cats chasing catnip. Once she was sure she was out of sight, she whirled around and pulled out Mr. Pointy with one hand while a dagger found its way into another, both waiting to make things go poof or thump in the night.

After three minutes she began to wonder if the demons stalking her had argued themselves into abandoning the hunt and going their separate ways to pout. She was about to step outside of the picnic site to see if she could spot them when she began to feel **IT** becoming unsettled within her blood, but it felt different than all the previous times. It felt different in a wrong way and as she noticed her right arm shaking while her fingers jerked of their own accord. She tried to stop it, tried to still her arm, like she had in the past whenever **IT** tried to rise to the surface but, for some reason, this time felt different. She wasn't given much time to consider the differences as her legs gave out, suffering the same shaking as her arm to the point where standing was becoming increasingly unlikely. Was this some sort of magic spell her demon pursuers had cast on her? If so, she was in a serious pinch! Her fighting style relied on the fact that she'd be able to use her body to do battle but that was impossible at the moment since, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't stop the shaking. She was about to try and call out for help in the hope that the thought of being spotted by people might drive off her attackers when something that sounded like a cross between a flushed toilet and a bug zapper reached her ears. She barely managed to turn halfway before something hit her but the sensation of impact soon became the least of her worries as she felt every nerve in her body come alive with pain. Pain and **IT** soon intermingled, causing **IT** to surge forward now that she lacked the ability to concentrate and mount a defense against it. Pulses of the two elements reverberated throughout her being to the point where she didn't even realize she was voicing her agony for all to hear.

There were also feelings of… something… that almost escaped her notice amidst the pain.

Feelings of cutting things, feelings of smashing things and many others that didn't quite match up against what bits of short term memory she could access amidst the maelstrom within her. For a time that was both infinite but also only took a couple of moments, she was lost with the two warring forces inside of her but eventually, like all things do, it began to pass. Not that she realized it for quite a few minutes because of the lingering sensations of pain keeping her from willingly moving and **IT** had firmly settled itself close to the surface to the point where it might be visible to others. Opening her eyes, her vision was suffering significantly from blurs and double vision to the point where she couldn't completely make out what her eyes were telling her. All she could make out were three figures, one of which looked like they were carrying a large gun of some kind, approaching her but her affected eyes were making it impossible to make out any of the details. She tried to move, tried to push them away, but her body was only gradually shaking off the shaking and jerking of earlier. She was, for all intents and purposes, helpless against her attackers and it was a feeling that she hadn't felt since the night she had gone down into the catacombs beneath Sunnydale to face the Master.

She had fought the Master so hard, fought against the prophecy that her Watcher had all but abandoned her to, but she had perished and, if it hadn't been for Xander, she would likely still be dead.

This time, though, she couldn't depend on the possibility of her friend coming to the rescue this time because, unless he showed up within the next five minutes, it'd be too late. She watched as they loomed over her, their faces obscured by ski masks, and did her best to somehow put up some sort of resistance for the sake of her pride. She saw one of them kneel down next to her while another took something from one of his pockets and passed it to the kneeling one. She could only imagine what it was but she doubted very much it was some form of First Aid or anything that could be considered good for her current situation. Her other senses snapped back online as she felt a pin prick bit of pain in her arm and the world before her eyes began to fade into a sort of numb void.

Still, she managed to hear one thing before completely losing consciousness and it hurt her more than she could say.

"Man, Riley! You sure can pick'em!"

_**UC Sunnydale Campus, Approaching Northern Edge of the Campus, One Hour Later,**_

_**Xander's P.O.V**_

"So where do you think Buffy is?" Xander asked as he strode alongside Willow to where they were due to meet Buffy. "I know we're a little late but we should've met up with her by now."

"Maybe she ran into some demons and got held up?" Willow proposed as a possibility though it looked like she didn't entirely believe it herself. "We do have quite a few vamps on campus preying on freshmen and Buffy's first roommate turned out to be a demon, so it's not surprising that she might be a bit behind schedule."

"I guess," he said, not quite believing the theory either but not having anything better to put forth.

Walking along, he made sure to keep his sunglasses on and his coat closed up enough that no one could see the concealed swords inside. While it was true that at this time of night most UC Sunnydale students were inside studying, there were still a few teens walking about the campus so some concealment of melee weaponry was necessary. As for the sunglasses, well, he didn't want to risk any bigots or morons putting his bestest bud Willow on some sort of mutie sympathizer list or something. After all, even if he somehow found a way to become human again, it wouldn't change peoples' minds if they thought they saw Willow Rosenberg willingly hanging out with a mutant. Granted, if it was only the one time then some people might write it off as something harmless or just give her a rough time for a couple of weeks, but even one hour would be too much for the redhead. So the bare minimum concealment methods were employed to help him blend in as much as possible. The sunglasses were tasteful yet not the sort that would have people making 'what sort of idiot is he to wear sunglasses at night?' looks at him and the coat, while large, was not uncommon to California. As far as his hands were concerned, claw tipped fingers and all were kept in his pockets and he'd only take them out when the slayage started. Not the most perfect disguise but it'd do in a pinch for the time being.

It wasn't exactly something he'd had his mind on in light of what had been revealed to him by the hanyou Tsukiko, and even now he was only using half his attention to keep track of things going on in the world around him. He still didn't know how much of what she had told him was fact and how much was just made up, but if Giles' behavior upon finding out was any hint, there was likely more truth than fiction involved. That being the case, he had a lot of baggage to deal with from his past life and he didn't have a clue as to where to start. Part of him thought that if he really was the reincarnation of this Sesshomaru, then perhaps he had an obligation to see to his past life's affairs before he proceeded any further into his new one. However a stronger part of himself defied that idea believing that any obligations or responsibilities he might have had to his previous life ended with Sesshomaru's death. In any case, his last meeting with Lady Tsukiko seemed to imply that he had ample time to make up his mind one way or another so, for the time being, he'd shelve the whole matter until he could make up his mind.

Walking forward a bit more, his sensitive ears began to pick up sounds of a crowd and a not too calm one at that. Concerned that there might be something wrong, this was the Hellmouth after all, he picked up his pace by quite a bit but not so much that he left Willow in his dust. It only took them a while to find the source of the sounds and, when they did arrive, both of them had to stop and take a moment gape at the level of destruction. Trees, benches, trashcans and various other objects that you'd find in that section of the campus lay about them, completely destroyed. Some had been cut, others smashed and some simply pierced but it was definitely not what you'd expect to find on a normal night. Various students were looking about the place with only a single member of UC Sunnydale security there to keep order, considering the number of people picking through the junk. It was definitely not normal but it didn't seem like your typical demon stuff either since even those monsters didn't make too large a mess when they did their thing. Then something occurred to him that had him scanning the crowds for a familiar mess of blonde hair and the clothes he'd last seen Buffy in earlier that day. If his estimates were right, she'd have been closer to the mess than he and Willow would have been when it happened and whatever made this mess would definitely have had her running to investigate. She might even have predicted that they'd hear the commotion and wait for them to get here before they left for G-Man's place for a research party. However, no matter where he looked, he couldn't see any sign of the blonde Slayer in the crowd of students or anywhere nearby.

Had she already gone to Giles' place? No.

Buffy knew that they were meeting here around this time and wouldn't have left before hooking up with them first. He needed to get more information before he went any further so it was time for some Q&A with the students to see what they knew.

"Hey! What happened here?"

"Dunno. I heard some girl scream and then a lotta noise right after that, like someone was trashing the place," she replied, a little out of it. "This was all that was here when I got here. Wild, ain't it?"

A girl screaming? Had someone been attacked? A scream definitely would have brought Buffy running if she'd heard it and she wouldn't have been discouraged by the chaos. Turning his eyes to the debris, he tried to piece together what might have happened using his soldier memories and his own gut instinct. However there was too big a mess to really decipher anything aside from the fact that someone or something did some major damage before vanishing. It was only when he had reached the center that a smell hit him that stopped him in his tracks, suddenly worrying for the well-being of his friend. Her scent was there but so were her sweat and another smell that had him dropping to his knees to sift through the debris to find the source of it. It didn't take him long but when he spotted the blood stained piece of cloth that he'd bet a month's supply of Twinkies that the fabric had come from Buffy's shirt.

NOT good.

Big mess, a girl screaming, scraps of cloth that he was certain came from Buffy's shirt and her blood were not good signs in the least. It took something pretty damn nasty to draw blood from Buffy, given how long she'd been fighting the good fight. True, some demons could deliver a nasty hit to her a few times but few really managed to beat her senseless, so his concern was justified. There was also something… odd about the blood he'd found. It was without a doubt her blood, it was full of her scent, but at the same time there was a foreign quality to it that his mind seemed to scream 'this does not belong'. He just took that to mean his nose had sniffed out whatever made her the Slayer but at the same time that didn't seem to fit quite right. Looking about the area, he could he could pick out more than a few bits of cloth from Buffy's shirt now that he knew what to look for. Eyes narrowing with concern, he stood back up he tried to pick out Buffy's scent from the numerous smells floating about the air around him. It was not easy, he didn't have the experience of someone like Laura or Wolverine with an enhanced sniffer, but he managed to get a grip on it. Moving away from the mess of debris, he was only faintly aware of Willow following him but he couldn't spare the concentration or else he'd have to find Buffy's scent all over again. So set on following the scent he lost track of how much time had passed but when he set his eyes on what appeared to be the entrance to some sort of underground complex. Looking about the area, he was surprised to find himself in a densely wooded area that looked to be far from the campus and Sunnydale but he could still see UC Sunnydale in the distance.

Looking at the man-made structure before him, it looked quite well-kept and definitely not commercial in nature. In fact if, he had to define what he saw, it looked more like the entrance to a bunker or perhaps some sort of military installation but that didn't make much sense. It looked like it extended towards the campus but he'd lived in Sunnydale long enough to know that the local army base was miles away. So why was it there and why was in beneath UC Sunnydale? He had a very bad feeling about it all and was deeply worried about the possibilities that were popping up in his mind. Underground military base plus Buffy's scent going into it reeked of badness and, while he wanted to march in there to demand Buffy's immediate release, his soldier memories restrained him. He knew nothing of the interior of the base, nor what sort of opposition he might face and, while he would gladly take on any force to rescue Buffy, things wouldn't be that simple. For all he knew, they'd kill the Slayer before he could get to her or use her as a living shield. He needed information and back up if he was going to take back his friend. Fortunately, though, he had a way of acquiring both but he'd need to move fast if he wanted to succeed.

Turning to face Willow, who had stopped close behind him, he could see that she was proceeding to think the same sorts of things as he had moments ago.

"Come. We must tell the others what's happened," he said before he swept her off her feet into his arms before breaking into a run for Giles' place.

_**Giles' Apartment, Forty Minutes Later, Laura's P.O.V**_

They now had a mission.

Xander had returned ten minutes prior and informed them that his friend Buffy Summers had been captured by unknown military personnel and had most likely harmed her enough to draw blood. He had returned to the apartment of Rupert Giles to inform them and attempt to formulate a plan for retrieval of the young Summers girl. At the moment his friend, Willow Rosenberg, was looking through the records of both UC Sunnydale and the local construction companies to gain information on the underground complex. The X-Man Husk was using her com-link badge to see if there was anything that the others at the Institute could dig up. However there was something of a time limit that had been established by Xander that, when it ended, ready or not, he would assault the complex to reclaim his friend.

The time limit was two hours.

Mr. Giles and many of the other native Sunnydale residents tried to persuade him to wait until the following night before attacking, that by then they would have enough info to formulate a plan. At the moment the group knew nothing aside from the fact that they had spotted several men wearing night time combat gear and military grade weaponry around both Sunnydale and the campus. Such information was only enough to confirm the presence of military, or at least military trained personnel, in the area. It did not tell them anything about the numbers of enemies, the sort of weapons they possessed or what security measures were installed throughout the compound. While assaulting an enemy force like this wasn't impossible, the level of risk was usually more than most commanding officers would agree to face or risk their men on such a mission. Even with the wide variety of skills and powers assembled in this room, there would be a moderate level of risk involved if they attempted to go without proper intelligence. Nevertheless, Xander, in her estimation, was not one to let a friend suffer if he could possibly do something about it and wouldn't let a lack of information stand in his way. She had no doubt that, whether or not anyone agreed with him, he would go in two hours no matter the danger or the risk to his own life.

She would go with him.

It's what… friends… did, right?

Besides, she had some experience in assaulting military level compounds, thanks to Dr. Rice's grudge against both her and her father/brother, Weapon X. Because of his hatred, he frequently removed key pieces of data from her mission briefing files in the hopes that it would lead to her final demise. He failed each time but that didn't stop him from continuing to tamper with her mission briefing material where and when he could slip it by Sutter and her mother. While most of her missions were completed thanks to her training and skill, there were enough times when all that had kept her alive had been her healing factor. Xander had exhibited a regenerative ability on a similar level but she had yet to see how truly extensive it was or what limitations it possessed. She knew that like her father/brother, she could take injuries to almost every vital organ in her body and recover from it. While she had never been decapitated or cut clean in half, virtually all other injuries she'd ever had inflicted on her person had healed completely. Her friend had managed to lose an arm to the super sentinel Nimrod and it had regenerated in a matter of days with no visible signs that it had ever happened. It was possible that this could be done with his other limbs as well but it was highly unlikely that it could be done if he was decapitated. It was one of the most reliable ways to kill something if you were not aware of its weak spots in advance and, if she was mistaken, it would mean the loss of one of her few friends.

She… didn't want that.

Hearing the sounds of someone coming down the stairs before anyone else, she turned and saw that Xander had changed into his fighting clothes. While they looked like clothes from sixteenth century Japan, she knew that they were strong enough to repel most projectile weaponry and were immune to most flames. When combined with the weapons tucked beneath his golden sash, he was a most formidable warrior in terms of offensive and defensive attributes, but he was not unbeatable. The few times she had seen him use his swords, she had been able to tell that the majority of his movements were instinctive muscle memories rather than controlled voluntary actions. She had little doubt that, in the face of a truly skilled opponent that was his physical equal, he would have a much harder time simply surviving the fight, to say nothing about winning. She would have to advise that he attempt to consciously learn various styles of swordsmanship that would be suitable for the blades he wielded. She herself knew several styles so… maybe he would agree to let her teach him the way of the sword. It was an odd idea and she wasn't sure where it came from but it felt right somehow. She would approach him with the idea once the current mission had been accomplished and they were back at the Institute.

"Any luck, Willow?" Xander asked, walking around the furniture to get into a good possession to examine the information displayed on the screen.

"Nothing so far, Xander," Willow replied without ceasing her efforts on the laptop. "I'll keep looking but either they hid things in the paperwork really good or they didn't hire anyone local to build the place."

"Or the place was built decades ago and there aren't any records," Hellion said while trying to find something in the room to hold his attention. "Let's just go in and storm the place!"

"Oh, yeah! Let's just charge into a possibly heavily fortified military compound with no idea what we'll run into!" Mercury said sarcastically at the proposal just made by her friend, "That'll keep us alive!"

"Chill, Cessily! No matter how good they are or what they got, there's no way they can beat us if we all head in there together," Julian said sounding just as confident as before. "Even if they have some training dealing with the things running around this freaky town, I doubt their bosses thought they'd have to deal with mutants."

"E-even if you're right, Mr. Keller, there's no telling what they might do to Buffy if they believe the compound might be lost," Mr. Giles pointed out, trying to introduce some realism into the room. "They may decide to kill all of their captives rather than risk them regaining their freedom. At the very least we must at least acquire a basic map of the facility so we know where to look for Buffy."

Hellion merely scowled at this and turned away from the man that'd burst his bubble.

"True, but if we don't get one in the next two hours, I'm going in anyways and relying on my nose to sniff out where Buffy is," Xander stated in a tone that had its warmth rapidly fading away. "It might take a little longer but I'm getting better at picking out different scents."

She could tell that none of the natives of Sunnydale were enthusiastic about their friend's statement but they did not appear to have any new arguments to dissuade him with. If one of them came up with something, they would no doubt bring it to bear but she did not believe it would affect her friend's plan to assault the military complex in two hours. Since she would not stand in his way, the best thing she could do was somehow reassure his friends that he would be alright and that the risk was less than they believed it to be.

"I will also be there. If you cannot track your friend by scent, I will try. I have experience in that area."

"Thanks, Laura." Xander said with a small smile breaking through the determined stone face he'd come down the stairs with.

"While I do not doubt that you would be able to track Buffy down by her scent, Xander, there is the matter of the personnel you'll certainly encounter," Rupert Giles stated, pouncing on a flaw in attacking the compound in haste. "What do you plan on doing about them?"

"With super senses me and Laura have, we should be able to dance around the people easily enough." Xander replied as his determination face slid back into place. "As for the electronics, well, I'm sure we can keep up with something."

"They will not be a problem. The number of configurations used by military bases are limited so it should not be difficult to locate an access panel to disable the systems of our target," she stated without hesitation as she already began to run through the possibilities in her mind. "If matters proceed according to past experience, the soldiers will likely position themselves at key areas for the most part with only a team or three assigned to patrol the hallways. It should make moving about easier."

The others nodded at the logic in this course of actions. Not that she cared about what they thought beyond how it would affect their efforts to extract Buffy Summers, of course.

A knock from the door to the apartment caught everyone's attention and she tensed up in case it turned out to be an enemy. She catalogued the various points of entry as well as defendable locations that could accommodate the number of people in the room. It wasn't promising but she would work with what she had. Rupert Giles was closest so he went to open the door but all it took was for it to be opened a crack for her to be able to identify the people on the other side.

It was the three people that had met with Xander earlier in the day, the ones that had told him about his past life as Lord Sesshomaru at the ruins of Sunnydale High School.

"I understand you are preparing to mount a rescue operation, Lord Sesshomaru," Lady Tsukiko stated casually with a smile on her face. "We would like to offer our assistance in this venture."

_**Lowell Fraternity House, One Hour Later, Riley's P.O.V**_

What is she?

It was a question that he'd asked himself ever since he'd seen the B.O.A.R.D device strike Buffy, revealing a side of the blonde girl he had never once suspected existed.

It had all started out easily enough with a simple field test of an experimental piece of equipment with Forest and Graham. Forest had been the one actually holding the monstrosity and wearing the goggles with Graham keeping a defensive posture while he looked about for potential targets with his own eyes. It had been slow and, aside from a few HSTs that they had already encountered, they didn't see anything too flashy or spectacular. As such only a quarter of the creatures they encountered had actually been taken back to base for imprisonment and then, later, thorough examination. It was as they had reached the northern area of the campus grounds that Forest had picked up something that had quite a few of the B.F.G-like gun's sensors acting up and, before he could say much, his friend immediately moved in pursuit of what the device had detected. It had only taken him a minute to pick out a blonde girl whose movements matched his comrade's sufficiently to make her Forest's prey. It had been odd at first but not overly so, considering the number of HSTs he'd encountered that were capable of making themselves look perfectly human on the outside. Therefore he didn't see anything amiss but this soon changed when he began to have a familiar feeling creep up from within him that there was something familiar about the target.

When she'd turned her head for a moment her name came to his lips in an instant.

It was Buffy.

He had immediately demanded to get a look through the goggles in order to see for himself what it was telling his teammate. With a bit of annoyance Forest had given in and he'd gotten a firsthand look at the readings the B.O.A.R.D device was picking up when aimed at the girl he'd taken a liking to. The sensors on the device had classified the Sunnydale native as possessing the infamous x gene that all mutants possessed, as well as an unidentifiable element that the machine couldn't make heads or tails of. There was also a weird fluctuation in the readings as though the target's body couldn't decide what it was or what it wanted to be. He had immediately called the device a piece of junk for giving such unreliable readings but this was disproven when two other people were scanned, showing completely human readings before Graham was scanned showing the same. He was still skeptical so in the end they had compromised: they would expose Buffy to the initial energy field that the device produced during its charging phase and, if she didn't react, they'd call it a night. They had waited until she was alone and away from the other students but, when the field was emitted, the blonde girl reacted precisely as Director Walsh had described. It had been shock that had gotten him through everything that had come after that, from the blast of energy to the destruction that had followed, leaving him only the time since he'd returned to his room to think things through. It had been beyond anything he'd seen before to see Buffy lashing about with her arms and legs in pain but what had really floored him was that it wasn't ordinary thrashing about. Instead of normal hands Buffy's arms had transformed into a crude blade one second then a stone hammer moments later with a near seamless transition between inhuman steel and normal pink human flesh. The same happened to her legs and between the four morphing limbs almost the entire area around where she'd collapsed to the ground was reduced to so much debris.

It had only been afterwards, when she had reverted to normal and stopped moving, that they had moved into finish things up according to protocol. That, of course, being that a sedative was administered to the captured subject to ensure safe transport back to headquarters and then removal of any incriminating evidence that might have resulted from the capture. The retrieval team showed up like clockwork and within twelve minutes they were gone with no one being the wiser that they'd ever been there. Sure, there was still some debris but there was nothing there that would indicate a military presence or that someone had been attacked. He'd bet a month of KP duty that the local P.D would be unable to deduce the truth and would likely fall back on their usual stance of coming up with some bullshit story that civilians would swallow. It was one of the side benefits to having the Initiative based out of Sunnydale. With its history of unusual phenomena and HSTs, the locals had spin control and denial down to a fine art. It'd been a bit odd, considering the number of people that had either died or gone missing, that no one had clued into the truth but then he guessed that some people just liked living in ignorance.

When they'd gotten back to base Forest had immediately given Walsh the memory module containing Buffy's sensor data and summarized the entire encounter before he could say a single word. Whether this was because his friend wanted to give him time to get his head screwed on straight or because the guy wanted to get the credit for it all, he didn't know. In the end, though, the head of the Initiative praised them for such a rare find and immediately had Buffy carted off to a specialized holding cell while the main laboratory was prepared for her 'examination'. He shuddered as he recalled what the going scuttlebutt was about what happened when Walsh became interested enough in a HST to order the main lab set up for her. Most HSTs didn't come out of that place in one piece unless they had some sort of enhanced recuperative abilities and those that did come out alive didn't last long after a few more sessions. About the only positive thing that the other troops had to say about the Director when she got like this was that it meant they wouldn't have to interact with her as much and, when they did, she was almost always in a good mood. That meant requests that she usually would have dismissed immediately stood a better chance of getting granted then at any other time. Now, though, he didn't feel like making any one of a number of requests that he thought would either improve his own life or the efficiency of the Initiative.

Why was he acting like this?

Buffy was an HST and HSTs were a threat to innocent people all around the world. The whole point of the Initiative was to learn more about them so that effective countermeasures could be developed to limit or, in some cases eliminate, the activities of certain breeds. Since Buffy was a breed of HST, then it was vital that was much was learned as possible because, in his opinion, powers such as what the Summers girl displayed were a very real threat to the world. Limbs that could extend to almost three times their original length, could transform into crude weapons of either stone or steel and some degree of super strength was nothing to be dismissed. Plus, since most HSTs were hostile towards humans, it was entirely possible that Buffy had been an enemy agent attempting to gather intel on the Initiative. Unlike Forest, who saw demons as nothing more than animals like a bear or a tiger, he was smart enough to know that clothes plus a possible language equaled sentience. As such, sentient beings probably had some sort of hierarchy or organization amongst their people and, with the Initiative working out of a HST hot spot, it wasn't impossible that there'd be something done to counter them. Had she just pretending to be friendly with him because she knew he was a soldier assigned to the Initiative? He didn't think so but it was hard to be objective when he had feelings for her. He didn't think it was love but it was definitely something that could have developed into that if given enough time. It was because of this that he had left HQ and did his best to drown himself in his cover of Riley Finn, Teacher's assistant, rather than risk letting his emotions trick him into doing something stupid.

Something stupid like trying to arrange for Buffy's release.

The part of him that was the soldier was telling him to give such ideas a swift death and a quick burial before they caused him to endanger his career. He was a soldier through and through, working his way up the ranks over the course of the past ten years since the day he was old enough to legally enlist in the military. He considered it a point of pride to fight for his country and protect those precious to him by combating the various evils that existed in the world. When he'd learned about the existence of the HSTs, he'd initially been skeptical but the proof could not be denied when it was growling right in his face. Since that day a little over two years ago, he had been giving his all to ensure that humanity had what it needed to defend against whatever the HSTs could throw at them.

Now he had to consider the possibility that there might be neutral or even benign sub-terrestials based on what he knew of Buffy Summers.

If there had truly been no deception on her part, aside from concealing her abilities, then she was just a sentient looking to live a normal life just like any human. Maybe she was a mutant rather than a HST. They were certainly more common and, since the sensors of the B.O.A.R.D device had come from a sentinel, it was possible that they somehow misread a mutant as an HST. There was that fluctuation in the readings, after all, so there was no way to be one hundred percent certain what Buffy was whether it be HST or mutant or something else entirely.

_I should bring this up with Director Walsh,_ he thought with a thoughtful look on his face. _If it turns out Buffy's a mutant then there's no way we can keep her for experimentation. It just wouldn't be right!_

He had no personal reason to dislike mutants and, on the whole, he was willing to follow a live-and-let-live policy with them so long as they didn't break the law. He couldn't… no, he _wouldn't_ allow an American citizen's rights to be ignored for the convenience of the Initiative's mandate or scientific advancement.

He would do whatever he had to in order to stay true to his beliefs.


	8. Going where the sun don't shine

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material contained herein. They are the rightful property of their creators and associated companies. I make no profit off of this whatsoever. I write fanfics because they're fun and because there are those that enjoy reading my work.

_**The Wooded Area North of the UC Sunnydale Campus, One Hour Later, Chieko's P.O.V**_

_About time I got some action!_ Chieko thought as she proceeded with the group of ningen and someone who was supposedly her grandfather. _I was starting to get so bored._

It was a sad fact that most teenagers in this day and age often hungered for excitement or entertainment to fill in the space that would otherwise be occupied with boring stuff. For someone such as herself, though, with the blood of a great dog demon flowing through her veins, that meant that most ningen athletics didn't really do anything for her. Her body could easily outperform even the best human athletes in the world without breaking a sweat, so getting that satisfaction people get from overcoming a difficult obstacle was a waste. Also, while normal things like movies, TV and music were be nice to pass the time, it was like fast food in that the desired result didn't last for very long. The only thing she could honestly say she took satisfaction in and had fun doing was joining the royal guard when they went to dispose of some demons that were getting delusions of grandeur. With them she could cut loose and really get a decent workout, considering the fact that many of them could match her or, in some cases, surpass her in terms of physical power or special abilities. Still, she wasn't the daughter of Lady Tsukiko of the Western Lands for nothing so she wound up winning more often than not. For the few times she did get in over her head, there was always a member of the royal guard to bail her out. Tonight, hopefully, would be equally entertaining but she knew there'd be the single wrinkle of the 'no killing humans' rule that gramps had laid out twenty minutes ago that would put a damper on things.

_He sure isn't the merciless aristocratic warrior Mom made him out to be, _she thought, barely restraining a roll of her eyes.

Sure, she wasn't a bloodthirsty freak like some youkai she could name, but at the same time she wasn't all that concerned about spilling a little blood or taking a life. It was a fact of life among youkai that if you wanted respect from someone, the only thing you could do was pound it into that person. If they still disrespected you after that then sometimes you needed to go the extra mile. Still, she was hanging with a bunch of white hats right now so, unless she wanted them to give her an extra helping of grief, it'd be best to follow their lead.

If they hurt her or her mother, though, then all bets were off.

By hurt, of course, she meant taking off an arm or something that would require the skills of a youkai healer sooner rather than later. If it was just a flesh wound or something equally silly, then she'd just write it off as a part of the price of a decent fight. After all, if you bellyached over every little scrape or bruise then you shouldn't be on the battlefield in the first place.

As they came within eyesight of the entrance to the underground military compound, she went over the basics of the plan in her head since she knew that by this time both teams should be reaching their starting points. It had been a little while after they had arrived that Jaken had handed them a disk containing information on the Demon Initiative of the United States. It was standard practice amongst various demon clans and organizations to keep tabs on whatever the humans were doing with regards to both the demonic worlds and the supernatural. It was a great concern over the last century as ningen technology grew by leaps and bounds that they might one day be able to overcome demonkind in terms of power and influence. Therefore measures were taken to monitor their progress and, if necessary, send someone to throw a monkey wrench in things to slow down the R&D boys until such time as the demon community had what they needed to counter the human threat. Therefore it had been simplicity itself to ask for the people back home to send them everything they had about a military operation based out of Sunnydale, California. While it wasn't completely up to date it did have a layout of the base as well a basic summarization of the security that the complex had. Armed with this information, they had devised a plan by which they would divide into two teams: team one would work to disable communications and security while the other would go to the top three locations where this 'Buffy' girl was most likely to be located. Obviously she was with team two with her mother, gramps, the mutant Mercury and the mutant Husk. The other team was comprised of the mutant Talon, the mutant Hellion, the mutant Dust, the human Willow and the human Rupert Giles.

_If everything's gone according to plan, Team Two should be reaching their first destination point right about now as well,_ she thought as her team crouched down a couple feet into the forested area near their entry point. _Just gotta wait for the signal and then it's party time!_

Like her mother, the weapons forge by a demon weaponsmith were two twin kodachi and with the Lady of the Western Lands as an instructor, she was quite good with them if she said so herself. She still couldn't beat her mother in a straight on fight but she could keep things at a stalemate for at least half an hour before starting to lose ground. Considering their training sessions usually lasted four hours, that was pretty good, even though her Mom pressed her to do better at the end of every sparring session. Considering that she could probably take on most mid-level demons without too much trouble, she didn't foresee any trouble handle a band of ningen military men. Her clothes might get dirtied up a bit but she had smarts enough to change into something that was more practical for fighting and that she wouldn't miss if she had to chuck them later. That didn't mean, of course, that she had to be dressed in rags that lacked any sort of style, though, because she still had an image to maintain. So while her clothes were middle class in type, the color combos and ways it enhanced her appearance meant that if she wanted to go clubbing afterwards she'd fit right in.

"Time to go," Xander, as he insisted others call him, said as he got up from his hiding spot behind a bush. "The security camera at the entrance just went offline."

Following him to the entrance, she watched as the reincarnation of her grandfather pierced the door with his claws and then ripped it wide open as though it was made of paper. Not exactly the refined way she'd heard her mother say that Sesshomaru usually handled things but she was hardly one to talk. She preferred a more physical approach to things as well as doing it that way usually proved to be quite cathartic after a long day. As they entered the complex, she could see that Xander had already knocked out the two guards that had the misfortune to be posted there and, according to her nose, there was no blood so they'd live to see their court martial. He was walking forward down the hallway with little caution except perhaps using his superior inu daiyoukai senses to perceive things as much in advance as possible. An occasional sniff and a moment to listen to the sounds in the air was the extent of his caution as he strode deeper into the compound as though he owned the place. Now **that** was definitely like the Sesshomaru that her mother told her about in the stories she was told at bedtime. The untouchable Sesshomaru who showed no fear and only showed emotion when something truly offended or pleased him.

She wondered how long his icy calm arrogance would last.

Glancing out of the corner of her eyes, her mother looked to be all business with her blades at the ready and her face one of sharp concentration. However to those that were close to her though, close like family, there was a light in the eyes of Lady Tsukiko of the West that was rare indeed. It was the light of excitement, of enjoying herself, and it didn't take a brainiac to figure out the reason for this. Ever since the sparring match at the ruins of the school, her mother had been starting to let her ice queen mask slip more and more to show an overjoyed woman beneath. It was both nice and creepy to see her mother like this since, for the majority of her life, the older hanyou had been completely wrapped up in her Ice Queen personae. Oh, there were times when her mother let the mask fall off when the two of them were alone but whenever someone was nearby that wasn't in the 'close friend' category, it was a visage of stony stoicism that was shown. It pretty much made it clear that her mother was elated that she had truly found her father's reincarnation and, as such, probably thought that it was alright to let her emotionless mask crack open a little more each day. Her mom probably expected her father to reassume his previous position of Lord of the Western Lands of Japan. It had always been something of a burden for her mother to rule over lands of her father after he died and, while the hanyou woman did so with everything she had, it was never easy. When all this was over with and they were back in Japan, her mother might pass rule of the lands back to her father or, at the very least, would result in the two sharing the territory.

_Unless he decides to tell Mom where she can shove it,_ she thought, pondering an unlikely but no less possible outcome. _After all, just because someone says you were someone in a past life doesn't mean the problems of the past life need to be handled by the present one._

She knew if some strangers came along and told her that she was some mighty youkai Lady or something in a past life and wanted her to take on the responsibilities of that life, she'd tell them to take a hike. As far as she was concerned, the problems or responsibilities of a past life ended when that life did and no one was going to make it otherwise.

That was about as far as she was able to take that thought because, seconds later, not one or two but six soldiers came into their sight, most likely patrolling in response to the electronic systems crash. It took two blinks of an eye for the six people to notice that there was a group of people present that shouldn't be there but it didn't take nearly as long for Xander to charge forward to take them out. The guards managed to raise their weapons to fire but that was about it because after that they were a little too busy feeling pain to do much else. It was beginning to look like gramps could have done all this by himself if he'd wanted to and she had to wonder what she was doing here at all. Then she remembered how her Mom wanted to impress her reborn father and hopefully get him in her debt so they could leverage him to go with them back to Japan. Sneaky but only time would tell if the scheme worked or blew up in not only her mother's face, but also her own since those old fossil youkai always seemed to think that the mistakes of the parent should be visited on the child. It was ancient, it was tradition and it was **OBSOLETE** as far as she was concerned! Still, until she became the Lady of the Western Lands herself, she couldn't do a thing aside from occasionally try to motivate her mother into introducing some modern ideas into youkai society.

Walking quickly yet cautiously, they proceeded to the first location where they thought that Summers girl might be held. From what she could recall, it was also the most likely since no one wanted things to last long enough for the soldiers to get their acts together. It was the holding area where captured specimens were kept between in-depth scientific examinations by one egghead or another. That they had learned was the purpose of the facility once her mother had successfully bullied one of their informants in the ningen military to look into the matter. Jakken had been against it, saying that there were only so many favors that they could call in from this particular insider and that those favors should be saved for the direst of situations. Naturally, caught up in her elation of finally finding her reborn father, her mother overruled the toad youkai and so they learned the truth about the Initiative. It was yet another attempt by humans to capture, study and harness demonkind for their own ends which, in the military's case, meant new weapons or cannon fodder. It was a nasty trend with humankind that whenever they discovered something new and potentially powerful, they were certain to try and weaponize it sooner or later. With things the way they were with mutants, superhumans and the occasional threat from outer space, it was understandable that the little ningens would glomp onto anything that might give them some reassurance. Not that it excused the mandate of this Initiative project or how they chose to carry it out. She might not know a single demon that was being held captive in the complex but she knew that, if left alone, it would only be a matter of time before the Japanese began to follow America's lead. Better to show all ningen the error of their ways by shutting this place down, or at least proving that demonkind wouldn't stand idly by while things like this happened.

They were about to turn the final corner to the holding area when Xander stopped in place and began to sniff the air with increased care. It took her less than a second to figure out that he was trying to use all but his eyes to figure out precisely how many guards were waiting for them if any. The holding area would logically be the place where the soldiers would place a large group of defenders but, thankfully, they'd be there with the intention of keeping their prisoners in rather than keeping someone out. How heavily armed they were would depend on whether or not they'd want to keep their prisoners alive or if they didn't care one bit since they could probably replenish their stock of specimens quite easily on a Hellmouth. If it was the former, then most likely their weapons would be non-lethal or, at the very least, things that your average demon could shrug off without too much trouble. In any case, it wasn't long before he ceased looking with all but his eyes and, before she could ask him what those senses had told him, he was off in a blur of speed that was almost quicker than her hanyou eyes could follow.

She wanted to call him an asshole as she charged after him with the rest of the group but kept her mouth shut since she didn't want to alert the soldiers. As they turned the corner, she already saw that half the guards were down, unconscious, but this did not mean the fight was all over because apparently ten soldiers had been stationed at the entrance to the holding pens. That meant there were still five on their feet and, given the dimensions of the hallway, it wouldn't be too hard for the ningen to simply fill all available air with weapons fire. With that in mind she moved to keep that from happening, her mother joining her while Mercury used her powers to flow along the ceiling and Husk began tearing off skin and clothes to reveal a body of steel beneath. Personally she found Guthrie's power disgusting but she didn't comment on it since the odds of her having to deal with it on a daily basis were practically nil. With speed and precision she and her mother took down one soldier each and, while they did stick to the 'no killing humans' rule, the humans they defeated would be a mess of bruises nonetheless. Mercury extended some of her body, forming it into an arm with a blade in the end before slicing the weapon held by one of the soldiers in half before the blade turned into a fist, punching the fool right in the jaw. Husk was no less direct with her moves but, in her case, the human she had targeted managed to get a shot off but it only bounced off her steel skin before becoming embedded in the wall. As a result the man's helmet got smashed off before he had his legs swept out from under him, thus causing him to crash to the floor. A quick elbow to the man's chest finished things and, unless her ears were deceiving her, she heard at least one rib break. Xander eliminated the remaining man leaving the entrance to the holding area free of opposition.

"We should move quickly, Xander," her mother urged as she cast her eyes about the immediate area. "If those soldiers were ordered to report in at regular intervals then it won't be long before those in charge know something is wrong."

Instead of replying, he slashed at the door with youki-charged claws cutting through the reinforced door like it was made of cardboard. It looked like the situation was causing his inner Sesshomaru to rise to the surface because, unlike earlier when he'd be considerably more talkative, he was acting like they weren't even there. According to what she'd heard of her grandfather, he was pretty snooty and wouldn't talk to anyone he considered beneath him or when he thought that talking was a waste of time. Whatever the case, it didn't matter since they could now enter the holding area and find out whether or not that Summers girl was inside. Looking at the occupants of the cells as they passed by, she could name some of the demons kept inside but, thankfully, none of them were youkai from Japan so she could care less what happened to them. Most of the non-Japanese demons she had encountered during the course of her life were scum and not worth the slightest bit of respect whatsoever. They were approaching a turn in the line of cells when Xander suddenly froze for a moment before sniffing the air as though he was trying to decipher a scent that was so faint so as to be nearly non-existent. Deciding not to be left behind the curve this time, she too tried to pick out whatever it was that had so completely captured his attention and found it seconds later. It was indeed a faint scent but it stood out from what the other demons close by in a very noticeable way. It was unlike anything she had ever smelled before but one thing she could say for certain about the scent was that it didn't come from an ordinary human, nor did it quite match the scents that the mutants were giving off.

While it was true that a scent was something individualistic that was different from person to person, there existed an underlying thread that was a constant among the mutant friends of Xander. It was one of her few specialties that she could be proud of that her sense of smell and her ability to make sense of what she smelled was, in some cases, better than that of a pureblooded youkai. What her nose was telling her now, though, was that the unusual scent might share many similar qualities with humans, mutants in particular, there was something else there that she couldn't quite make out. In the end she wasn't given any more time to pick out the nuances of the scent because, like a Trekkie who just spotted their favorite actor, her grandfather took off for the source of the odd scent. It took another turn but they eventually came to a door that was distinctly different than the one that had allowed them to entire the holding area. For one thing there were electronic devices placed around the doorframe that she couldn't quite make heads or tails out of in terms of discerning their purpose but it was safe to say they couldn't just rip this door down like the last one.

"Step back and let me take a look at this, Xander," Husk said as she stepped to the front of the group to examine the door more closely. "If this is where your friend is then it looks like they want her to stick around a lot more than the rest of the demons here."

"Do what you can, Paige, but do it quickly," Harris said, sounding like his desire to free his friend the right way was the only thing keeping him from doing things his way. "I doubt we have much free time before things start getting complicated."

"I'm afraid things have already become complicated," Said her mother in a tone that practically demanded that everyone look her way.

When they did it was only a second later that the sounds of boots thumping on the floor reached their ears, letting them know that their incursion had been noticed and retaliation was here. Moving back to the corner and peeking around, she was quick to spot two soldiers getting down to one knee while aiming their weapons down the hallway no doubt with the intent to keep them pinned down. For the time being those idiots could do whatever they liked so long as they stayed right where they were. Once they got the Summers girl out, though, that would be another matter since she didn't see another way out of the holding area and she doubted that it'd be smart to start smashing through walls to make their own.

_Good thing I'm not the one leading this little operation._ She thought with a certain smugness as she imagined the mess Xander would have to deal with, _I'll leave it to him to get us out of this corner._

_**The Pit Area, Initiative Complex, Same Time, Hellion's P.O.V**_

"Hurry up with those locks, Red!" Hellion yelled as he did his best to shield Willow and Giles from incoming fire. "It looks like the soldier boys are getting their collective acts together!"

"I'm moving as quickly as I can!" Willow replied as she continued to work on the gadgets that were keeping them from simply breaking the door down, "Just give me five more minutes!"

"You've got three! Make them count!" Hellion sent back while using his telekinesis to rip the rifles from the hands of the closest soldiers.

Normally he'd have said something like 'take all the time you need' with so much confidence it would have pissed off the right people. However these people had some pretty fancy gear, not S.H.I.E.L.D level but still pretty nasty, and while both Dust and Laura were doing their best to keep the opposition from getting organized they were losing ground. He supposed that if the girls were both willing to employ lethal force, things could be mopped up pretty quickly but, with the exception of Laura, none of them were capable of taking a human life if they didn't have to. They had been trained from the moment they'd set foot in the Xavier Institute that lethal force was only to be used as an absolute last resort and that they should avoid using it whenever possible. While there had been times when he'd been pissed enough to ignore that rule entirely, his dream of one day being a full-fledged hero amongst the ranks of the X-Men prohibited the use of lethal force. Heroes didn't kill. They always found a better way to save the day and take the bad guys down for the count. As he felt the enemy fire concentrate, though, he knew things were going to get hairy sooner rather than later.

_I just hope that these boys don't have some of the rounds Stryker's Purifiers had._ He thought as twisted the barrels of a few guns to render them useless, _If they do then things are going to be messy real soon._

"Almost there… almost there… GOT IT!" Willow exclaimed as she disabled the final gadget. "We're good to go!"

"About time! Laura! Dust! We're going in!" Hellion yelled as he looked over to see old man Giles open the door before rushing in with Willow on his tail, "Keep'em out as long as you can!"

"Affirmative!" Laura yelled back as she decked one soldier while executing a mid-air sidekick on another.

Without another word he followed the humans in and then used his TK to keep the door closed with the power of his will. When he turned around to look at what the floor plans of the place had designated a special laboratory for special projects or dangerous specimens, he saw two things that made him wish he hadn't turned around. The first was the Frankenstein monster lying down on an examination table that looked like someone had put it together blindfolded considering that no two pieces belonged to the same creature. Toss in some incomplete cybernetics and it was seriously ugly as well as disgusting but he'd leave that last part out if anyone asked. The other thing that had him wishing that he hadn't turned around though was the **thing** growing in a test tube extending from the ceiling that was filled with a green transparent liquid. It wasn't fully formed, at best maybe a third of the way done, but he could tell that it would be humanoid in appearance when done but that was about all he could discern. In both cases he was seriously creeped out by the place and hoped that either they found the girl they were looking for or quickly found out that she wasn't there, 'cause he didn't want to stay here longer than he had to.

Thus as one they looked about the room and tried to see if there were any teenage girls trapped here that matched the description of one Buffy Summers. He almost busted a gut laughing when he'd heard the name of the person that had been captured but an elbow from Cessily cut off his laughing before he pissed off their hosts. Still, she was quite the looker if the picture they'd been shown was accurate, so maybe she'd be grateful enough after he rescued her for a date or two. After all, she was a Slayer and that meant she had powers of her own, including enhanced strength and speed, so she definitely wasn't your average girl. Contrary to what Surge might have thought, he didn't have anything against baseline humans. He just believed that mutants were better since they could do things that normal humans couldn't and it was a universal rule that the more you could do, the farther you went. Therefore, because mutants could do more than average humans, that meant they could go farther if they played their cards right and he planned on landing an everlasting lucky streak.

"Any luck?" he asked as he continued to let his eyes peruse the contents of the room.

"Um… unfortunately, no," Giles said as he examined the various papers located throughout the room. "Apparently the scientists used either numbers or scientific designations for their 'specimens' rather than actual names. It, uh, might be possible that there is information on Buffy here but without knowing what designation they gave her it will take considerably more time than we have to find what we need."

"Any better luck with that computer, Red?"

"No. They're password protected." Willow replied as she continued to work on the only computer in the room, "I need time to hack my way in."

Feeling someone on the outside of the room trying to force the door open, he directed more of his attention to keeping the door closed. He knew that it possibly could be Laura or Dust trying to get in but he figured they would at least have the sense to yell and let him know it was them trying to get in, so he figured until he heard something to indicate otherwise, he'd assume that it was the soldiers trying to bust in. Unfortunately for those G.I. Jokes, while the material of the door could be destroyed or broken down, a barrier forged from his telekinetic abilities was as unbreakable as his will. Feeling the door begin to weaken, he did his best to reinforce it with his mutant power but metal was metal and even if they gave up on trying to break down the door they might try to make a new door all their own. He wouldn't know where or when so the best he could manage would be to stay as alert as possible so the second the room got breached by the soldiers he'd be ready for them.

"Aaaahhhhh!" Willow cried out as the sounds of sizzling and breaking hit the air for a second or two. "The computer was booby trapped!"

Looking at the smoking computer with the cracked screen, it was obvious the machine was beyond saving and, if the eggheads wanted to keep their info out of the wrong hands, then they did a good job making sure of that. No one would be getting any sort of info from that computer without a lot of work and equipment that was not currently at hand for them to use.

_Looks like this location was a bust,_ he thought sourly. He hoped that the other team was having better luck because his group would have their hands full getting out of this area so they could get to the final location where the Summers girl might be held. Fortunately problems A and B were soon handled as twin blades popped through the wall, cutting a rough rectangular shape causing the steel and concrete to fall to the floor in front of him. The cause was soon revealed to be Laura, who quite frankly looked like she'd been dumped into one of those glass bottle recyclers that broke the objects into pieces the size of pennies, if not smaller. Of course her healing factor had taken care of the majority of the wounds, leaving only the ruined leather clothes and splashes of blood here and there. He was pretty sure that the blood was her own but, given her former occupation and tendencies, he couldn't completely discount the possibility that some might belong to the soldiers outside. Still, in the interests of team trust and positive thinking, he'd go with the former scenario rather than the latter.

"We must leave. Quickly," Laura said as her claws slid back into her hands with the holes healing up in seconds. "I overheard one of the officers calling for outside reinforcements using a satellite phone. The nearest location for that would be the army base outside of town. They could be here inside of fifteen minutes."

"Where's Dust?" he asked as he quickly tried to figure out a plan of retreat.

"I sent her to alert the other team." Laura replied with eyes that never stopped searching the room or her improvised door for potential threats. "I told her to have them meet us at the same location that they entered at. It is likely to be the least guarded."

"Gotcha! Let's go people!" he said to both Giles and Willow who had paused in their search of the room's contents.

"But what about Buffy?" Willow asked, distressed at the idea of leaving the complex without finding her friend.

"Since she isn't here, the other team probably found her already," he said, not liking the forced retreat but understanding the necessity of it all.

"But, um, what if she is at the third location?" Giles asked sounding, a little more reasonable but no less distressed at the idea of leaving Buffy Summers behind.

He could tell that unless they could supply evidence that Buffy wasn't at the third location or that someone else would at least make a pass by that location, the two humans would be dragging their heels the entire way to the exit point. However, just as he was about to ask Laura if she would check out the third possibility, the ground beneath their feet shook as though they were experiencing a minor earthquake, but it settled down within a few seconds. For the people in the room it was the equivalent of a voice from on high telling them that something had just happened.

"You want to bet that the other team has run into something nasty?" He asked as he began to move towards the door, "Let's go!"

With those words they all left the way Laura had come in and began to navigate the hallways towards where they believed the other team was at the moment. They only ran into a few soldiers along the way and they were knocked out easily enough that they didn't have to slow down much. It was only as they came up on their destination that they got their first hint as to what had occurred to cause the mild earthquake. Instead of flawless walls and bright lights, large trenches and tunnels that stretched from floor to ceiling and were about two feet wide could be seen scarring the hallway in front of them. It wasn't like any weapon he had seen since arriving at the Institute and that made him think that it was Xander or those two strangers that had been on his team. In fact he'd bet good money that the damage was caused by Harris' swords since the damage to the floor bore a vague resemblance to the torn up pavement that had been outside Eagle Plaza the night the New X-Men fought Nimrod. However it was a bit heavy-handed for the guy, especially after he'd gone to such lengths to get them to promise to pull their punches and not kill or seriously harm the soldiers. If something had happened to piss the rule maker off enough to become the rule breaker, then it was a safe bet that they'd found the Summers girl and that she was not in good shape.

"Looks like it's time for the finale, people!" He said as he continued to head for the entrance to the holding pen so as to attack the soldiers from the rear, "So it's time for this star to take the stage!"

_**Twelve Minutes Ago, Holding Area Section of the Initiative, Xander's P.O.V**_

"Man! Whatever they have in here, they really don't want anyone not authorized getting to it!" Husk said as she worked on the fourth of five devices placed around the frame of the door. "I'll have the last one disabled in a minute but we should be careful about any hidden devices once we get inside."

"Not a problem. HA!" He said as he delivered a right cross to the jaw of a hapless soldier who had thought it'd be a good idea to try and charge their position. "These guys can't do much without room to work! The size of this hallway is actually working out better for us than it is for them!"

A truer statement there never was because, while the soldiers weren't all that concerned about killing the demons in their cells or damaging equipment, they could not advance very far down the hallway. They could not take cover in the cells due to the lack of acceptable openings in the glass-like doors and, without that option, the armed men had no choice but to try for frontal assaults with one or two men providing cover fire. Not exactly a winning strategy for the soldiers but it was working wonders for him and his team in that it kept them from being overwhelmed. However they couldn't do it forever since, sooner or later, the soldiers would likely decide to just cut their losses, activate the base's self-destruct device (assuming that this place had one) and then beat it. There was no real way to do anything about that aside from try to find and rescue Buffy as soon as possible and **then** make their escape. Husk had done an admirable job with the security measures around the door and he felt almost positive now that this was indeed the place where the soldiers had stashed Buffy. The security was too tight for it to be anything else and since, they'd heard nothing from the others, it was fifty-fifty whether or not this room was the right one but those were better odds than he usually got.

"Got it! The last of the security devices is disabled!" Husk said with satisfaction as she got up from the crouch she'd been in to tinker with the final security device, "Let's check this room and then get out of here if we find your friend."

"Right! Lady Tsukiko? You and Chieko keep the soldiers occupied," he said as he carefully retreated from the soldiers towards the now unsecured door. "Once we figure out if Buffy's here or not, we'll pull out and move onto the next possibility if she isn't."

"As you command, Lord Sesshomaru." Tsukiko said in a tone reserved for someone addressing a superior or someone they deeply respected.

He wasn't quite certain he felt about that but, so long as it didn't hinder him or his goals, he'd let her talk to him however she wished. As soon as he was around the corner he pulled open the door to the high security cell and entered it in the hopes that they'd hit the jackpot. What he found was indeed the reason for their assault of the military complex but it was a moment that only brought him joy for a moment before what his eyes told him brought him back to reality in the worst possible way. He had expected to find Buffy pacing inside the cell in a hospital gown or something, looking a little roughed up or tipsy. Instead he found her bound by some of the thickest metal restraints he'd ever seen, naked, with numerous cuts all over her body that looked like they had been left open on purpose. A small part of his mind guessed that they were probably testing her enhanced healing ability to see how long it took her body to recover from different types of wounds. Moving in closer, he immediately called upon what field medicine Soldier Boy knew to try and determine just how serious her condition was. It was during this examination that he noticed other changes from what he knew as 'Normal Buffy'. First was the fact that her ears had taken on a distinctly Vulcan point to them and secondly he noticed that her usual blonde hair (it was proven, unintentionally so, that she was in fact a natural blonde) now had turned green at the tips of every hair on her head. What had they done to her in such a short amount of time? He didn't know and he didn't care.

All that mattered was getting Buffy out of here.

That and teaching these assholes a lesson!

Unsheathing the Tenseiga, he did not hesitate to use it to instantly heal her wounds but was momentarily puzzled by the fact that it did not cause the pointy ears or green hair to vanish. However his drive to get her away from here and his anger towards the soldiers pushed this thought aside as he sheathed the blade in his hand and used his superior strength to free her from her restraints. What might have been strong enough to bind a Slayer was nowhere near what was necessary to render the strength of a daiyoukai useless. With the metal bonds gone, he wrapped her in the soft fur pelt that had been on his shoulder before lifting her up in his arms and walking out of the room. He took no notice of the others when they gasped at the sight of the blonde Slayer but merely looked in the direction of where Tsukiko and Chieko were stalling the soldiers. He knew he had wanted to take the moral highroad with the soldiers, both because his friends from the Institute wouldn't support the use of lethal force as well as the long standing Scooby rule about harming humans, but after what they'd done to Buffy he was not feeling nearly as charitable as before. They were leaving and if the soldiers decided that they wanted to be an obstacle, they'd find out just how harshly he dealt with obstacles when pissed.

"We're leaving. Clear us a path, everyone." He said, his anger causing his voice to drop in temperature considerably.

Mercury and Husk were a little unnerved at the cold side he was showing them but the two hanyou that had come to Sunnydale to fill him in on the details of his past life merely nodded, changing their tactics from delay to defeat. It was then that the true power gap between hanyou and normal ningen showed as they quickly began to wipe the floor with enemies they had only shown the ability to fight to a stalemate before. However, just as they were starting to make some real headway towards the exit, an odd feeling began to rise up within his body, causing moving each limb to be harder to move than before. He was able to force his body to act the way it was supposed to by bringing his undefeatable will to bear against it but the others were having a much greater problem with things. Their limbs were convulsing or not moving at all and it was becoming increasingly harder for them to control their movements despite their best efforts. The cause of this feeling was soon revealed as an African American soldier came into view wielding like some nerd's attempt to create a new and improved BFG from DOOM except this looked like it really worked. He only had a moment to reflect before a green sphere of energy was launched from the weapon and flew through the air towards him. Unfortunately for the soldier, while the blast was quite quick compared to what he could do, it might as well have been a lightly thrown beach ball. Dodging it was simplicity itself but as he heard one of the others barely manage to evade it as well he realized that if he didn't watch it an ally might be struck by the weapon.

"It looks like you've figured it out" came a clinical and academic female voice from around the corner in front of him. "While you might be fast enough to avoid the B.O.A.R.D device, your friends apparently are not. Surrender and after I have gathered what I need from you, you'll all be set free. Assuming you're still in any condition to leave under your own power, of course."

_Arrogant bitch!_ He thought as he watched a woman Joyce's age walk into view wearing a casual woman's business suit and lab coat. _She thinks that she's already won! An assumption I shall quickly correct._

"While it is true that your device is potent against some, it is no more than an annoyance to me." he said in a tone best reserved for an Ice Age as he gently placed Buffy on the ground. "Also it would be a mistake to assume you have won this battle before facing my true strength. A strength I will now give you a sample of, foolish ningen."

As he stood back up, he pulled the Tessaiga from its sheath and, with a little youki, caused it to transform into its true fang-like form. While there was a part of him that still didn't want to seriously harm the soldiers, a larger part wanted to let it be known just how pissed he was and just how outclassed they really were. With his emotions to guide him, he delivered two quick vertical slashes in which but a fraction of the Fang's true power causing streams of golden energy to streak diagonally away from his position, obliterating some demons in her cells while not touching the soldiers themselves. Like all that they encountered was made of nothing but air, the slashes of energy tore through the facility for an indefinite distance before finally expiring. With the power behind it, even though it was only a fraction of its maximum, was still sufficient to shake the ground beneath the feet of those who stood close to its destructive path.

It was an impressive show of power if he did say so himself.

"Those were warnings," he said before repositioning himself to deliver a slash that would cut right through the ranks of soldiers in front of him. "The next one won't be. Stand aside and allow us to leave. It is the only safe option for you and your subordinates, woman."

He could see from the looks on the faces of the leader, as well as those soldiers, whose face he could see that they were taken aback by the show of power. However he could also tell that it would take something a little more high impact to completely shatter their desire to continue struggling against him. He hit upon an idea almost immediately but it was full of risks and, if it failed, it would be bad news for everyone. It would also likely cause things to turn to crap since he doubted that either Tsukiko or Chieko would adhere to the 'no killing' rule if something happened to him. Both of them were used to killing their enemies rather than leaving them alive and he had little doubt that if they were sufficiently provoked they would tear these soldiers to ribbons. Sadly his plan was the best one for ending this before a line was crossed that would taint his soul for all time.

"If a show of my power will not dissuade you then use that weapon of yours," he said, sheathing the Tessaiga with the sound of metal against metal scraping against one another. "I will not move. Perhaps if you see how useless it is you will see the wisdom of leaving me and my allies alone."

The African American wielding the BFG look-a-like wasted no time in bringing the weapon to bear and he steeled himself for the oncoming onslaught. With another discharge of energy, a sphere of green flew towards him but this time he did nothing to avoid it, rather allowing it to hit him dead center. It was not a pleasant experience at all, pain along with much greater difficulty controlling his limbs, but with a determination he only showed when the lives of his girls were in unspeakable peril, he forced himself to remain unchanged. It was like experiencing a sort of tug-of-war inside his own body but instead of going for a win like he otherwise would have, he instead focused on establishing and maintaining a stalemate. Fortunately he found that he had the strength to hold the line and eventually the effects of the blast dispersed completely as the disruptive force found it could not overcome his power. This damaged the morale of the human troops considerably since it appeared that the sphere hit him, sizzled over his body a bit and then fizzled out with him looking completely unscratched.

"Do you see the truth now?" he asked as though speaking to someone beneath him, "Your weapons is useless against me and your soldiers do not possess the strength to defeat me in close quarters combat. Step aside or face the consequences of your defiance."

In the seconds that passed neither the soldiers nor the leader of the complex said or did anything, no doubt scrambling for more favorable options to their careers, but it was another that made the decision for them.

"Everyone stand down and clear a path!" Said one as he strode into view, body language daring his comrades to defy him, "Our 'guests' are leaving."

"Agent Finn! We cannot allow these mutants and an HST to get away with this!" Labcoat Lady yelled, obviously pissed at someone she considered a subordinate giving orders, "Regardless of whatever misgivings you might have, they have attacked this facility, seriously hurt many of your fellow soldiers and are stealing a valuable specimen! This **cannot** be permitted!"

"What cannot be permitted, Director Walsh, is for this facility to be damaged any more than it already has!" Finn yelled back with a bit of anger slipping into his voice, "WE have a **job** to do! We have been charged with learning more about the HST threat and devising appropriate countermeasures in order to safeguard the citizens of the United States of America, if not the entire world! You might think that capturing these people and keeping possession of Buffy Summers is worth losing the Initiative over but I don't. Now are you going to stand down, **Ms**. Walsh, or do I have to relieve you of your position?"

"You don't have the authority to do that! I am the director of this facility!" Walsh said angrily as she got right inside of Finn's personal space.

"Actually, I do. Page thirty, paragraph six, sub-section two, line three of our mandate clearly states that if the head of any military facility acts in a way that compromises or threatens the operational objective, anyone of security level double A or higher is authorized to relieve that person," Finn replied with zero doubt in his voice or on his face. "As it happens, I have security level double A here and I will relieve you of command if you don't stand down right now. Now what'll it be?"

It was a tense couple of minutes and he wasn't sure if Finn was bluffing or not but, if Willow had told him the truth earlier, then this guy was definitely a step up from Buffy's usual dating choices. Granted, he'd lost some points being part of a government project that had captured the blonde Slayer but, for what he was doing now, he'd let that slide. The question then became was the story he just heard was in fact the truth or if the blonde soldier boy was feeding them all a load of shit. His soldier memories were pretty much useless since they were out of date but it sounded right so, even if it did turn out to be bullshit, it might buy the Scoobies and New X-Men time to get away.

"Everyone… stand down and clear a path." Walsh said, every word sounding like she was eating something truly foul.

_Not the ending I would have imagined but I'll take what I can get._ He thought as he knelt down to pick up Buffy, who hadn't done much aside from breath since he set her down.

With a single look at the others, he told the others to follow him out with a wary eye on the soldiers as they passed by, just in case some of them felt like acting on their own initiative. It was just as he reached the entrance to the holding area that he almost walked headlong into a charging Hellion, who looked like he was about to try something heroic.

"Xan? You alright?" Julian asked, looking a little confused and just a smidgen disappointed.

"Yes. We're leaving." He replied still sounding a little icy since his anger hadn't entirely bled off from before.

As he walked down the hallway back towards the entrance, he heard something pretty amusing from Keller.

"Ah, MAN! I had this great entrance all planned out!"

_**One Hour Later, Giles' Apartment, Willow's P.O.V**_

"What happened to her?" Willow asked, voicing the question she was pretty sure everyone else in the room was asking at the moment.

"I, um, don't know. Was there anything in the files you accessed that implied some form of surgery or experiment was conducted since Buffy'd been captured?" Giles asked, sounding just as concerned about the whole situation as she was.

"No. I didn't see anything that hinted surgery or experimentation like that," she replied, recalling what she could about the file titles and contents. "Then again, the computer I was using did fry itself before I got more than halfway into the really classified stuff."

It made her ridicule herself inside that she'd been thwarted in her efforts to dig into the files of the military complex so quickly. Aside from her studies into magic, her hacking ability was one of the things she took pride in, even though it was technically illegal and Giles would probably lecture her about doing it for anything other than a Hellmouth emergency. Still she was always as careful as possible whenever she tried to hack into a government or company computer and made sure to cover her tracks by no less than three separate deflection programs to prevent a trace. This time, though, she hadn't been using her computer, nor had she thought to bring any of her specialized hacking disks with her when they left on their rescue operation. Still she had done the best she could given the circumstances but apparently it wasn't enough if the current state of her friend was any indicator. Now they were left to their own devices since she didn't think that she'd be able to ask the military to hand over the necessary files so they could try to fix Buffy. The best they could hope for was to try to figure things out on their own and hope that something in Giles' books or maybe one of Xander's new friends might have a resource they could tap.

It was then that she noticed Husk tapping buttons on a device she'd gone to get once they'd returned to Giles' apartment. She didn't know what it was but it was making the blonde mutant focus pretty much all her attention on operating it and probably interpreting the readings. Curious, she got up from her chair and made her way over to Paige as both her concern over the Slayer's current predicament and her innate curiosity when it came to technology of any kind compelled her to take a look. Angling her head just the right way, she could see a single vid-screen displaying what looked like a combination of an infrared image and wavelength scan. There were numerous buttons and switches on the device but, aside from the obvious, they were meant to modify the parameters of what was being displayed on the vid-screen. She couldn't make heads or tails out of the information that was being shown so she decided to do the natural thing.

"What's that you're using?"

"It's a portable version of the device we use at the Institute to locate mutants," Paige replied as she only took a moment to look away from the device before resuming.

"But Buffy's not a mutant. She's a Slayer," she said, pointing out the pointlessness of using a mutant detection device on a human Vampire Slayer.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that. While the mini-Cerebra is having some trouble getting a solid reading on her thanks to this Hellmouth, what I am getting does indicate that she might be." Paige replied with a bit of frustration creeping into her tone. "It would explain her new look but it's a bit odd that, if she is a mutant, that her mutation would emerge so late."

"WHAT!"

"M-Miss Guthrie… um, while we are all a bit flummoxed at the physical changes that Buffy now possesses, it is a bit hasty to presume that it is because Buffy is a mutant," Giles said while cleaning his classes the way he usually did whenever he was emotionally upset. "You said yourself that she is a bit old to have her mutancy suddenly reveal itself."

"That's true but there have been cases where people with the x-gene haven't manifested their powers due to some mitigating circumstances like a disease or some element of their environment," Husk explained as she began to get cross with the mini-Cerebra. "A mutants power will usually manifest themselves during a time when they're experiencing emotional or physical duress. Was there ever a time in which she might have been under such duress and was somehow different afterwards?"

"Husk, she's lived on a Hellmouth for over three years and has fought everything from common vamps to ascended Mayors," Xander stated in a 'duh' tone of voice. "With everything she's been through since being Called as the Slayer, her mutant powers would've shown up over three years ago."

"Could her being the Slayer have somehow suppressed her mutancy? Or maybe the Hellmouth itself?" the Guthrie girl as she probed the possibilities.

This actually got everyone thinking, herself included, about the possibility that the skin-shredding mutant might be onto something. While genetics weren't her specialty, it seemed logical that if external or internal forces could suppress a gene keeping it from becoming active that it might be the case. Still she had to think matters out a bit and hear what the others had to say.

"Well…maybe…?" she said tentatively as the others looked at her.

"What're you thinking, Wills?" Xander asked seriously while looking at her intently.

"Well you remember the time when Buffy went down into the caves to confront the Master and she died? Well, I always found it to be odd that she was able to defeat the Master so quickly after you revived her," she replied laying out her thoughts in the best order she could manage. "I mean from the way that Buffy described it and the nightmares she had after that night, it sounded like he was way out of her league."

"So the guy got lucky the first time around and she kicked his ass once she got a grip on his moves," Xander said, sounding like the anomaly she'd pointed out was nothing.

"I think Willow might be onto something, Xander." Giles said with a thoughtful look on his face. "While I have always been proud of Buffy's skills as a Slayer, the odds of her being able to overcome an adversary so soon after being defeated by that same foe are quite slim indeed."

"It might be a bit more than that, Giles. I-I think maybe that Buffy stopped being the Slayer after that night." Willow stated with a bit of nervousness in her voice.

"WHAT!"

"Well, Giles was surprised when Kendra showed up and how unprecedented it was that there was suddenly two Slayers instead of one. We all just brushed it off as an oddity and didn't bother thinking about it anymore," she said as she began to recall more events that supported her current theory. "So what if… maybe… when Buffy was killed by the Master the Slayer essence completely jumped to Kendra and her mutant powers activated and maybe, just maybe, they were so similar to Slayer powers that we couldn't tell the difference?"

"What are those powers exactly?" Hellion asked, sounding genuinely curious.

"Enhanced physical abilities, durability, healing, instinctive skill with certain weapons and precognitive dreams," Xander replied even though Giles seemed a little put out with the revealing of such info.

"Hmmmm… most mutants only have one main power, sometimes as many as three in rare cases, but no more than that and usually there's some sort of logical relation between them," Husk said as her mind warred with the two possibilities. "Still, it's the only thing I can think of that might match up against what we've uncovered so far."

"I think this might be the case as well," Xander said, taking matters more seriously. "Buffy did seem stronger after I did CPR on her and it makes more sense than there suddenly being two Slayers at the same time for the first time in recorded history. I also think that BFG-Wannabe-thing might've forced Buffy's mutant powers to the surface. She smelled fine when we first got here but, after that mess on the campus, her smell changed significantly."

"What do you mean?" Asked the girl Laura, who was seriously creepy in the I-could-kill-you-with-a-tooth-pick sort of way she looked at everyone.

"Well, I could easily pick out the normal Buffy scent but there was also something… different, alien, mixed in with it as well as something I think all mutants have in their scents," he replied as he tried to define what his nose had been telling him when he'd happened upon the spot where Buffy had been captured. "Oh, and the entire place where they grabbed Buffy was a mess. It looked like someone had taken an axe and hammer to the place in a big hurry."

"Then that's probably where her mutant power first manifested. Still, given what you've said about Slayer powers, it doesn't match up that they'd be capable of that kind of damage," Husk said, sounding more and more befuddled by the situation by the minute. "Did she have any weapons on her when she went out on patrol? Were there any at the capture site?"

"Well, I know she went out with the basics: wooden stakes, a bottle of Holy Water and a cross," she replied, remembering what Buffy would definitely have remembered to take with her. "She might have grabbed a knife also but that's about it. Swords aren't real easy to conceal so she generally doesn't take one out unless she specifically needs one."

"Then it doesn't make any sense how she could have done all that damage with what she had," Xander said sounding less happy that they couldn't piece together what happened.

"Perhaps she encountered some demons with the weapons needed to do such damage to the surrounding area," Giles proposed while his gaze implied his mind was working a mile a minute. "It is, after all, something she has been known to do, um, use an enemy's weapon against him or her or it."

"I suppose there might have been something in the mess but I didn't see anything sticking out," Xander replied before turning to look at Buffy. "Sounds like she's coming to so maybe we can ask Buffy what happened."

She looked at where her first real female friend was laying on the couch and was about to ask Xander what he was talking about when the blonde Slayer began to stir from her slumber. For a few seconds the Summers girl looked to be waking up in the way that was typical for all teenagers but then she sat up like a shot while throwing her arms out towards those in front of the couch. Now this was troubling enough on its own since it implied that Buffy's stay with the soldiers had been traumatic, but when her arms morphed into multiple metal whip-like tendrils from the elbow down… well that was new. However it was also scary as hell since each whip-like tendril lashed out at one of the people in front of the couch with enough force that it would seriously hurt or perhaps even kill if it made contact with those people. However, in a blur of motion and several flashes of steel, each tendril was knocked aside before her very eyes and, when it was all over, she could see that Xander, Tsukiko and Chieko had been the ones to step in. With a blade in each of their hands they had managed to deflect the tendrils and, since there wasn't any bloody bits on the floor, they hadn't cut anything off Buffy at all.

"W-what's happened t-to me!" Buffy exclaimed in fear as she looked down at her arms like they belonged to the grossest demon in the world.

Worse than that, it sounded like the blonde maybe-slayer-maybe-not was quickly approaching mental breakdown territory unless someone did something quick.

"It's okay, Buffy. You're safe now," Xander said in a voice completely void of emotions. "You're among friends. I know how frightening this must be for you, to be human one moment then something else later, but you're not alone. We will help you. Just, please, calm down."

His words, while disturbing considering that they were usually so full of emotion, seemed to be having the desired effect given how the altered Summers girl was beginning to breath normally. It was almost as if he was somehow passing onto Buffy his own stoicism and emotionless state. It was a few minutes more before anyone felt safe enough with the Slayer's emotional state to say anything but the fact that, with her increasing calm, her arms morphed back to normal helped a lot.

"How, uh, how do you feel Buffy?" Giles asked, putting on his best 'stiff upper lip' face so as not to agitate his charge further.

"Um, okay I guess, sort of," Buffy said, still sounding majorly freaked out but no longer in any danger of breaking down on them. "What happened?"

"What do you recall?"

"I remember patrolling the campus and going to the place where Xander, Willow and me planned on meeting for a joint patrol. I heard something tailing me and figured it was your smarter-than-average demons planning to ambush me," She said, not really seeing anyone as she walked through the forest of memories in her head. "I tried to lure them into a clearing used for picnics but then something… something happened…I…"

It was clear that whatever the military boys did to her to force her mutation into activation had been seriously traumatic for her. Sensing this, she decided to move in and tried to steer the conversation towards something a little safer and definitely more productive.

"Look, whatever happened, it's over now. Instead of dwelling on the past, we should focus more on the future. How are we going to help Buffy through this?" she asked with her mind already trying to think up ways to help her friend deal with her new looks and abilities.

"If you want, I could speak with the headmistress of our school?" Husk offered, instantly taking on the posture of representative, "The Xavier Institute is a school for mutants, for teenagers who want to learn how to control their powers and get an education at the same time, and I'm sure Xander would enjoy having a friend there."

She could see Giles about to politely decline the offer on the grounds that Buffy, as the Slayer, was needed there to keep the demons under control. However, at the moment, she believed it was more important for Buffy to get some distance from Sunnydale for a while and learn to control her new abilities. Besides, if her theory was correct, that Buffy was in fact no longer the Slayer, then defending the Hellmouth and fighting evil was somebody else's problem now. True, that someone else was Faith, who was still in a coma at Sunnydale General Hospital, but with any luck the grim reaper or maybe one of those asshole's of the Watcher's Council would take care of that problem. She knew that she should take the high road, to be open to the idea of that skank redeeming herself someday, but as far as she was concerned that hussy was a bad seed through and through. Others would say that it was just residual mousy nerdness being jealous of how sexy and wild Faith had been. They might even have pointed out that she might've been mad about the fact that Faith had been Xander's first, even though she'd been with Oz at the time.

Maybe they'd even been right, sort of, but that didn't change the fact that Buffy needed time away from Sunnydale in the right environment to learn to deal with her new abilities.

"Yeah, it probably would be nice and better for Buffy, too," she said, keeping her eyes on everyone for the most part but occasionally staying on Giles long enough for the man to clue into the fact that the words were mostly directed at him. "After all, it's not like we have a lot for training people in how to train people in their powers. Magic, sure! Killing demons, sure! Mutant powers, uh-uh! Plus, with everything we saw in that military complex, it's possible that they were the yearly big bad we would have faced come springtime."

"Yearly big bad?" Hellion asked, no doubt looking for clarification.

"Yeah. For some reason the end of the school year always ends with this big fight with whoever the newest big bad is," Xander replied, thinking back, no doubt, to all their past battles. "First there was the Master of the Aurelius Clan of vampires, then it was Angelus and then last year it was the ascended Mayor Richard Wilkins the First, Second and Third. So unless someone else decides to roll into town, they probably would have been the spring big bad."

The friends Xander had brought with him from the east coast and the two people who claim to be family to her first crush's previous incarnation looked stunned by the explanation but eventually just shrugged and accepted it. Considering the former looked like superheroes and the latter dealt with demons every day, something like a predictable apocalypse happening every spring probably wasn't all that impressive.

"Well, I suppose that with the, um, commotion that you all caused, it is unlikely that the military will attempt anything overt for at least several months, if not pack up and leave altogether," Giles said after once more cleaning his glasses. "Add to that the fact that word of three powerful youkai being in town will no doubt spread fast and I dare say most local demons will likely hunker down in their lairs for a few weeks until they're certain it's safe to come out."

"Um, Buffy right here, so anyone want to know what I think?" Buffy asked, drawing everyone's eyes to her.

"Sure, Buffy," she said, immediately realizing that she'd been acting like her parents when it came to making important decisions for someone else.

"I… I think I'd like to go with Xander to learn more about what I am and what I can do," Buffy said with a little tentativeness creeping through her decisive voice. "I mean, if the big bad's already bit the dust then I should have time, right? Plus you're always telling me that learning on the fly isn't always the best way to go about things, Giles."

"Yes… er, quite," Giles said, putting a supportive face on.

"Then it's settled. I'll contact the headmaster and headmistress of the Institute immediately," Husk said as she began to make her way towards the door of Giles' apartment. "Would a week be enough to get things squared away here?"

"Sure," Buffy replied, sounding a little lacking for words.

_This is definitely the weirdest thing that's happened to us ever,_ she thought as she compared this latest adventure to the ones they had over the past three years. _Considering what we've been, through, that's saying something!_

It had finally happened.

The one thing she had hoped to avoid since that fateful day eighteen years ago when she first beheld her little jade darling. Ever since that day when her beloved failed to accomplish his assigned task, forcing them to flee for their lives, she had made every effort to keep any clues to their location from getting to those who must never see them. Any doctors that her little one needed to see she made sure that they could not only be bought into silence but also that they had nothing to do with **that** faction. If she detected the slightest sign that the doctor tending to her firstborn child would betray her trust and allow the information to be put into circulation, she would remove that person from play **permanently**. Fortunately the number of times in which she had been forced to do so were so few she only needed one hand to count them all, but now all of that was for nothing. She knew not how much information had been gleaned from her daughter from those monsters but it was a safe bet that sooner or later **they** would see it. They had agents virtually everywhere and could gain access to virtually any database they needed to in order to accomplish their objective.

In the end the plan that had been related to her an hour ago was probably the safest for all concerned.

If she played things right, she might be able to trick those that would come for her into believing that she was working to fulfill their plan by sending her lovely little one away. It wasn't entirely unfeasible and, by the time that the members of **that** faction learned the truth, she would hopefully have a better plan ready to go.

It was the only chance she had.


	9. The Hunters and the Hunted

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material contained herein. They are the rightful property of their respective creators and associated companies. I make no profit off of this whatsoever. I write because it's fun and because there are those who enjoy reading my work.

Note: Sorry for the long wait. A combination of other products and work has chewed up a lot of my time. Still I plan in the next few weeks to change how I do things. For the last couple of months I've been trying to write entire fanfics from start to finish before posting them but this hasn't worked out the way I'd expected. Therefore I'm just going to post everything. This basically means that there will be delays between updates to each story but at least there'll always be something written by me for you guys to read.

_**The Xavier Institute, The Main Control Room of the Danger Room, One Week Later, Noon**_

_**Laura's P.O.V**_

Xander is a kind person.

That was what she thought as she looked down into the Danger Room to watch as Xander worked with Dr. McCoy to help Buffy learn some measure of control over her mutant abilities. From what she had overheard, it had been confirmed by the X-Man known as Beast that Buffy Summers did indeed possess the x-gene. The precise nature of the gene and the powers it bestowed on the girl were a bit harder to get a grip on. The few times that they had been triggered they appeared to cause some part of her body to transform into something that could either defend against the stimulus or defeat it. Beast likened it to the power possessed by the former X-Corp member codenamed Lifegaurd, who possessed the ability to shape the golden armor her body generated into whatever she needed in order to save the lives that were in danger. However Buffy's abilities seemed to be able to shape her body for both offense as well as defense. There was also no armor covering her body when she employed her powers. True control over these abilities was slow in coming. At present, out of every ten tries to activate her powers, Summers only managed to force their manifestation a total of four times. Those four times that she managed to activate them had been examined by McCoy to look for some sort of common factor that could be used to trigger the powers at any time. It still looked like it'd be awhile before that factor was identified specifically enough that the former Slayer could control her powers like the other members of the New X-Men.

Xander was down there with her trying to help his friend through the entire process and, while she could not hear them as she had not activated the audio pick ups in the room, she could tell that his presence was indeed easing her through the entire situation. It… felt nice seeing him like this. So patient, so sensitive, that she couldn't help but think that perhaps… maybe… this is what it was like to have an older brother or something. Thinking back on the time that had passed since she'd first met him, she had to wonder if Xander had acted like a big brother towards her. Looking through her memories, there certainly seemed to be certain commonalities between his behavior with Buffy and how he had treated her since the day they'd met. There were a few glaring differences, though, that she found difficult to define or explain. This was somewhat annoying since her training at the hands of The Facility had included psychology so that she'd be able to predict her prey's movements and manipulate them as needed. Still, another part of her found the idea of not being able to completely read him… interesting.

Interesting and perhaps something more since there was something else inside of her that she couldn't make sense of.

"Tell me, is that a genuine emotion?" came the voice of the headmistress of the Xavier Institute, "Or just something your masters programmed into you?"

This… annoyed her and so she said, "Get out of my mind."

"I'm not in it. I don't have to be." Frost stated as she walked up alongside her, "You have been with Alexander ever since New York and have been behaving like his personal bodyguard ever since Dallas. It is only to be expected that you might feel something for him."

"Please stop." She stated, not wanting to talk about such things with a woman who obviously detested her.

"You think I hate you, but I don't." Emma said before turning her head slightly to look at her. "In many ways, we are the same. I, too, have done horrible things in my life. I've hurt good people, destroyed minds."

She didn't need her training at the Facility to tell her where the white-clad woman was going with this discussion and it only brought up old memories of times when she had thought she'd found a home only to have to leave it because of Kimrua.

"Killed those I once loved, my own sister. I understand evil and death, just as you do." Stated the White Queen while turning fully around, "But the difference between us is that my actions were by my own choice. You don't have a choice. With a single drop of that chemical, that trigger, you lose control to your masters and kill whomever they choose. If you care for Xander, you will leave him. Leave this school **now**, before it's too late."

"How can you say that?" came an exclamation of disbelief from the entrance to the control room.

Both she and Frost turned to see who it was and discovered that Mercury, aka Cessily Kincaid, had apparently arrived just in time to catch the last little bit of the Headmistress' statement.

"She helped us! Saved some of us!" Mercury yelled sounding quite angry at the moment.

"Cessily-" Frost began to say before she was cut off with a look from Cessily.

"NO! You abandoned Kevin, you humiliate Julian, and now you want Laura to leave?" exclaimed Mercury, clearly not putting up with any excuses. "What is the matter with you? She nearly **died** saving our lives. She would have, if not for Xander! This is how you treat her?"

"There are things you don't know, Cessily." Frost said, trying to calm the redhead down before things got out of hand.

Deciding that things were going to get rather heated in the next few seconds, she chose that moment to leave the control room. Where she'd go, she didn't know, but she wouldn't stray too far from the Institute. Despite Frost's position with her, she had more than enough allies amongst both the faculty and the student body that expelling her without a good reason would only bring trouble to the blonde. Xander had already made it clear that he would leave the Institute if Frost tried to expel her and, judging from Cessily's words moments ago, the mutant codenamed Mercury might as well.

Getting into the lift, she tried to force aside the words that Emma Frost had spoken but that only seemed to make it easier for them to come to the surface. As much as she wanted to believe that the O.N.E forces and the X-Men would be capable of repelling an assault by the Facility, she knew firsthand just how deadly agents from that group could be. She was a prime example of the sort of operative they produced and, if a team of such people assaulted the mansion, the probability of there being any survivors was minimal. Those that were among the strong or who possessed regenerative abilities like Weapon X would survive but all the others would likely perish. She had to ask herself a single life-changing question: were the connections she'd made here at the Institute really worth risking their lives over?

In the end she couldn't think of a single justifiable reason to place these people in danger.

Not from a weapon's point of view.

Not from the point of view of the young woman she was trying to become.

She felt anger grow within her as she exited the elevator and moved for the front door of the mansion. Despite her unfamiliarity with it, she had become… fond of the life she had made for herself after escaping from the Facility. Even with the numerous encounters she'd had with Facility retrieval teams led by Kimura that forced her to abandon the little 'normal' life she'd made for herself, she still found herself trying again and again to live the sort of life her mother would have wanted. Yet no matter how careful she was, no matter how hard she worked to leave no trace of her presence behind, they always found her. They **always** managed to tear away the life she created for herself! They even had a way to make it so that she was the one that destroyed the innocent people she'd managed to make a home with. In the end she had no choice but to accept the fact that so long as the Facility existed, she could never have the life she wanted or that her mother had intended for her after leaving the Facility complex where she'd been created.

This fact only made the anger within her grow.

"Laura! Laura wait!" called Cessily from what she estimated was about fifteen feet behind her.

Pushing her way past two other students, she did her best to ignore what the New X-Man had to say and focus entirely on getting out of the mansion to a place where she could vent her anger safely. She had just about reached the front door when Mercury used her powers to get in front of her blocking her path.

"Stop! Look, I heard how horrible Miss Frost was, but you have to know that **we** don't want you to leave." Kincaid said with no signs in her voice that she was lying.

"It doesn't matter. She's right." She said, calmer than she'd expected considering the anger she felt within her mind at the moment.

"No, she's not! All those things she said… I didn't mean to overhear, I was just coming to check on… she said…,she was saying that…" the redhead said before a light of comprehension startled her into silence for a moment before she continued, "OHMYGOD…you like Xander."

It never ceased to amaze her how people she encountered somehow managed to bring up the one subject she didn't want to discuss.

"I do not wish to talk about this," she said making it perfectly clear that Cessily should drop the topic immediately.

"YOU DO!" Mercury said ignoring the statement in favor of the surprise she was now feeling, "Oh, Laura, we should… we should, I don't know, talk. We need to talk."

"Please move," she asked, hoping that a second hint would do a better job than the first.

"Let's go get a coffee! In town!" Kincaid stated, clearly not getting past the fact that someone she never expected it from had fallen for a guy. "Seriously, this will be so good."

"Whoa, can we do that now? I thought we couldn't leave!" Rockslide declared walking up to the two of them, "Is that new? I want to go, too!"

"NO!" Cessily responded to her teammate's request to come along. "Come on, Laura!"

With that she was pulled out of the mansion by her New X-Men teammate for a coffee shop that she presumed was someplace in Salem Center. She considered resisting but decided that this was likely to be something that Mercury would refuse to budge on. Add to that the fact that this was likely to be another chance to experience 'girl talk' and it could prove useful in future situations.

She hoped that she would have further chances to use this information, chances that weren't provided by the Facility for the purpose of filling their bank accounts.

_**The Entrance/Exit of the Danger Room, Half an Hour Later, Buffy's P.O.V**_

"Glad that's over with," Buffy muttered to herself as she, Xander and Bones walked through the door to the Danger Room.

"You didn't do that badly Buff," Xander said, showing that his ears were sharp enough to pick up what she had muttered.

"Indeed, Ms. Summers. Considering the fact that your mutant powers only fully manifested a week ago, your progress in learning to control it is impressive," Bones said, walking alongside the two of them with a clipboard filled with paper in his hands. "Give it a little more time. With luck you'll be able to at least activate your powers when you want to by the end of three weeks."

"Just activate them?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Given the versatility of your powers and the multitude of ways it can manifest itself, it will almost certainly take longer to become familiar with the nuances of your abilities." Bones explained while scribbling something onto one of the sheets of paper.

"Huh?" she asked, finding it surprising that she could meet someone who could give Giles some competition in the big words department.

"Basically your mutant powers are so complicated that it'll take a little longer than three weeks to get a handle on them," Xander said, breaking down Bones' explanation into simpler terms. "Take it one step at a time, Buffy. With the yearly big bad dealt with, we have the time."

True.

Assuming those Initiative bastards were slotted to be the end of spring big bads, then she had months of time to get a grip on her mutant powers. The thing was that she hadn't said 'Glad that is over with' because she had been dissatisfied with her rate of progress but rather she hated her new condition. It was bad enough when she'd had no say in becoming the Slayer but now her own body was making her less human than she wanted to be. She knew that the others would say differently, that being a mutant was nothing to be ashamed of, but for someone who wanted nothing more than to live the life of a normal young woman it was an insurmountable obstacle. However, if she had to choose between the Slayer obstacle and the mutant obstacle, she'd immediately choose the former since at least then she looked human. As just the Slayer, she could pretend sometimes that her Calling was just a nightmare, that she was no different from any other American girl, and excuse the fighting as something that anyone would do if they knew the truth. Being a mutant, though, was not something that could be ignored especially since all she had to do was look at herself in the mirror to see the physical evidence of what made her different. Pointed, Vulcan-like ears. Bits of green in her hair that she couldn't wash out no matter what she used. Add to those two points the fact that her 'power' was changing her limbs into freakish forms and there appeared to be no limitation on the different forms available to her. Some would think this was 'cool' but she just looked at it as a despicable abnormality that she could not rid herself of.

Still, it was not in her nature to simply give up or take the coward's way out by committing suicide. She would endure this. She would live with this just for the satisfaction that came from spitting in the face of whatever higher being had chosen to replace one burden with another heavier one. She would make this work for her somehow and endure. She would take the things she wanted from life no matter how hard Fate tried to stop her.

She could not bear living in this world otherwise.

Her thoughts were turned outwards again when she spotted Xander looking towards the lift that took people to the main control room of the Danger Room. He seemed to be waiting for someone to come out of it and became concerned when a whole three minutes passed with not a single new person joining them in the hallway. She wondered who he could be waiting for and went through the possibilities based on what she'd seen in the past week. There were his friends on that New X-Men team that the Frost woman seemed to think he was already a part of but in fact wasn't. Not officially, anyway. While she couldn't find fault with the headmistress' appearance, since it passed the five points of pretty, she wasn't sure that wearing such a revealing **leather** outfit was right for the head of a school. The New X-Men looked, for the most part, to be just your average teenagers, albeit with powers that could lay waste to an entire town. Hellion was an ass, Surge was okay but not quite leadership material, Elixir was a hothead, Rockslide was sorta like Xander and Dust was someone that she couldn't quite figure out, aside from the fact that the girl had to toss that outfit of hers. She was all for freedom of religion (so long as it didn't involve the end of the world or human sacrifice), but there were limits to acceptable fashion statements. Walking around in a modified black ghost costume would only make her stand out more and, considering she was a mutant, she drew enough attention to herself anyways. Mercury, though, was a little too much like the T-1000's little sister for her liking but she could see herself becoming friends with that girl.

_Maybe it's those 'girls' Frost talked to him about._ She thought as she remembered something the white-clad woman said soon after their arrival at the mansion.

When they'd gotten off the X-Jet (did all of their gear have X in the name!), the woman had been waiting for them and had gone through the usual spiel of welcoming her to the Institute. After asking Cessily to show her around the mansion and surrounding grounds, she told Xander as an afterthought that 'the girls' would have to wait a couple of weeks before they could have her Sunnydale friend make good on his part of their deal. The look of relief on her golden-eyed friend's face made it clear that there was something more to this than simple money or doing someone else's homework for them. When she asked her friend what the headmistress meant, he got a look on his face that she recognized instantly since it was one hundred percent pure Xander. It was the look he got whenever she'd asked him a question about what he was doing with Cordelia on their date or when she caught him staring off into space with such a guy look on his face. She knew it had something to do with dating or being in a situation with romantic possibilities but then that made her wonder why Frost had used girls rather than girl. The fact that she'd later learned that the girls were identical triplets made it easier to understand why Xander may have agreed to a deal with them but what about the ladies. Were they just toying with her friend? That was the only reason why she could figure why three American girls would date a single guy at the same time.

_If they're planning on messing with Xander, they better be ready to deal with the consequences afterwards._ She thought even now days after figuring things out.

Considering that Xander wasn't likely to be a total perv and actually like the trio, she doubted that he was waiting for the girls to show up. In the end her mind wandered to one possibility that she hadn't considered yet: the mutant most of the mansion inhabitants called X-23. That was a strange young woman and one she had decided not to like all that much since the girl had gotten the drop on her the first time they met. The black haired girl moved more like a machine than a person and a deadly machine at that. There was no real 'humanity' in her and anytime it looked like there might be something more beneath the surface she found out it was merely the machine trying to imitate a real person. It seemed unlikely that Xander would be interested in someone so… artificial, but then again X-23 was pretty much par for the course as far as her friend's past dates went; she was unusual, she was deadly and wasn't like most normal girls that went to school. With a sigh, she had to accept that it was the last possibility that was probably the right one and while she would internally dislike the idea, she wouldn't overstep her bounds as his friend when it came to relationships.

That, of course, didn't mean she couldn't have a little fun at his expense though.

"Waiting for someone, Xan?" she asked with a playful tone of voice.

This caused her friend to turn around in such a way that she knew she had been right to think that her friend was interested in the living weapon that looked like a normal teenage girl.

"Um, well… uh… kind of?" Xander replied, obviously unable to come up with a convincing lie to give her.

"Are you two, you know…?" she asked with a look on her face that let him know how amused she was right then.

"OF COURSE NOT!" Xander exclaimed defensively before he realized that he'd only encourage her if he started making a big deal of things, "She's a good friend. That's all."

"But you wouldn't mind if she became something more?" she asked, trying to at least get her friend to admit that.

Xander sighed at this statement, obviously realizing that she'd already formed her own opinion and no amount of bullshit would convince her she was wrong. It was a bit of a surprise that he was giving up this easily since it normally took Willow's resolve face to make him explain anything involving a touchy subject like this. Did he actually want to talk to her about this and just needed a little push? Or had the changes he'd been through matured him enough that he no longer saw the point to denying the truth?

"Honestly? I don't know." He replied, staring off into space while he collected his thoughts, "Physically she's a babe. A definite perfect ten hottie. Mentally? At first I just saw her as this young woman who got the shitty end of the stick of life and had the life she should have left stolen from her by those monsters at The Facility. She might not have told me everything but Laura said enough that I was able to fill in the blanks on the rest of the story.

"Imagine, Buffy, a place filled with scientists who are more concerned with making advancements in science then anything else. They don't care about the ethics of what they're doing or how the public would react if they found out. The only reason they cover their tracks is because it'd hinder their experiments too much if they had to constantly worry about repelling the authorities," Xander explained, getting madder the more he recalled X-23's past. "They wanted to make another Wolverine, a man they called Weapon X, but it turned out that all they could do was create a female version of him. From the time she was seven until she was twelve, they trained her to be a weapon, denied her anything that would give her the slightest bit of self, and used her to fill their pockets by killing for whoever could afford the fifty-five million dollar price tag."

This information blew her into silence as her mind tried to visualize what X-23's life must have been like and what her mind must be like at present. When she had become the Slayer and got all the mental baggage that came along with, she had thought that all of her normalness had been reduced to a mere ghost of its former self. Instead of enjoying life like a typical Californian teenager, her Slayer-side had her constantly looking at the people around her, wondering if they were a threat or not. Her mind was almost constantly buzzing as it sensed the evil of the Hellmouth. Unlike what Giles might have thought, she did indeed possess the ability to sense the demons and the vampires that lived in Sunnydale. She just didn't want to, didn't like it, because it only made it harder for her to cling to the normalness she'd managed to preserve from her old life at Hemery High School. That was the real reason why she'd let a little of the clichéd dumb blonde routine enter into her behavior from time to time in Sunnydale. No one who wasn't in on the secret would ever suspect a flaky blonde high school girl of being the fabled Chosen one, The Slayer, and even her friends could be at least partially fooled for brief periods of time with just the right comment at just the right time. It was when she knew that others thought her to be just your typical, if not very bright, teenage girl that she could embrace denial for a short time and forget that there existed anything else to her identity.

_The difference between me and X-23… no between me and Laura… is that at least I had some semblance of a normal life before I was Called on to fight,_ she thought as Xander prepared to continue his explanation. _She never had anything. She was just their tool from the day that she was 'born'. Only now that she's managed to get away from those monsters is she managing to learn what it means to be normal._

"She managed to get away from them but she still doesn't know how to be a normal teenage girl though. Even when someone tries to teach her, she just takes it in like mission data," Xander said, leveling off just below yelling level in how he was speaking. "I… I never really believed like you did that just because a person had a soul that that automatically made them good. I knew that evil wasn't species specific but to think that human beings could do something that horrible to a girl not even in her teens!"

With a growl that was more at home coming from the snout of a pissed off dog, Xander lashed out with the claws that were once human fingernails, leaving five parallel cuts behind in the wall.

"So you're trying to help her?" she asked purposefully keeping her voice calm in the hopes that it would keep her friend from completely flipping out.

"YES! I mean, I know I'm no psychologist and I don't know the first thing about how to deprogram someone, but I can't just leave her the way she is." He replied reigning in his anger once he realized he'd damaged the wall, "She's… she's one of my girls. Someone who can probably kick my ass six ways from Sunday, even in this form, but who I'd die to protect."

She didn't say a word to this statement because she'd always known on some level how Xander saw her, Willow and Cordy. She might not have a clue what his home life was like but she'd seen enough clues thanks to her curse as the Slayer to guess that it hadn't been anything he'd want known to the general public. So he stuck with them for as long as he could and made them his surrogate family. If Laura was now one of Xander's girls, then there wasn't much she could do to persuade him to keep his distance from the weaponized young woman. Instead she would simply have to be there for him and hope that the thing he knew he felt for the young woman didn't crash and burn like his previous relationships with women.

Too bad his mood apparently dropped right then and there after he took three sniffs of the air.

"Frost." Xander said in an icy tone that made her shiver a bit.

While she hadn't heard this tone of voice all that often, it never failed to cause her to shiver at how intimidating it was and how foreign it sounded coming from the mouth of someone who almost always had a smile on his face. Then again, after a week of seeing and hearing how the headmistress behaved, she could see how such a woman could get under Xander's skin. The woman treated the school as her own company, with her as the C.E.O and that Summers guy was her personal assistant. She had wondered for a moment if she was related to the guy but since she couldn't remember a cousin Scott and he couldn't remember an Aunt Joyce, they both felt it was unlikely. Thank God for small favors.

Don't get her wrong, the guy was definite a leader with lots of experience, but it was obvious that Frost had him trained like a good little doggy with how he almost never went against a decision she made. She knew that they were a couple and everything but they shouldn't have allowed that to influence their decisions and the top dogs of the Institute. The only time that the guy actually butted heads against the woman was on the issue of X-23, but that was more like the exception than the rule. Until the guy stopped being such a pussy-whipped idiot, she'd be happy pretending the guy was no relation of hers even though she kinda felt like digging a little deeper. With her mom on the other side of the country it would've been nice to have a distant relation here at the Institute that she could go to when she needed an ear to listen to what she had to say.

Then again, she had Xander for that.

He… he could be like a surrogate little brother for her.

Just like she figured he saw her as a big sister since she stopped his ideas of the two of them becoming anything like boyfriend/girlfriend.

"That **bitch** obviously needs someone to drive the message home before it sinks into that mojo mind of hers," Xander said with the same chill as he strode purposefully for the elevator that would take him up to the mansion proper. "Time to play messenger boy."

_This cannot be of the good._ She thought with her mind providing her with predictions on how **that** meeting would go.

_**One Hour Later, X-Mansion, Xavier Institute, Xander's P.O.V**_

_Well __**that**__ didn't go as planned! _Xander growled mentally as he sort of stomped down the hallways causing other students to give him a wide berth.

After he'd picked up the mixed scents of Laura, Cessily and that **bitch** Frost coming from the lift, it took him one second to figure out why his friend hadn't been waiting for Buffy and him when they finished the ex-Slayer's training. Almost from the first minute he and Laura had walked through the door, the blonde bimbo had been doing everything she could to get Laura out and hadn't been all that bothered by sinking to levels reserved for scum. He'd thought that after Headmaster Summers made it clear where he stood on the matter that Frost would take a hint and drop the subject. Now, though, it seemed that nothing short of irrefutable proof that the clone/sister of Wolverine could not be used against them by outside sources would get the blonde bitch to back down. Fuming over this, he figured the least he could do was find Laura and let her know that he would always be in her corner. Perhaps even together they could think of some way of lessening the threat that the Facility's trigger scent presented somehow. Anything that could improve her mood or make up for the way the bitch treated her in the Danger Room control room.

Seeing Sooraya and Laura's room up ahead, he approached cautiously and reminded himself to knock before he entered. While he might not understand Dust's religion enough to agree or disagree with it, he knew that the young woman would be upset if he walked in on her when she wasn't wearing her body-covering outfit. Knocking on the door to the room once, he could hear sounds of movement but no response from whoever was inside. Taking a sniff, he picked up three things that had him willing to ignore the whole 'wait until someone invites you in before entering' rule and barge right in. The first was the fact that Dust's scent was slightly, faint indicating that she hadn't been inside her room for at least an hour or so. The second was that he could smell Laura in the room and that was good since it was she he sought. It was the final thing he could smell though that had him the most worried because it was a smell that always meant trouble: blood.

Throwing the door open, he saw his concerns confirmed since Laura wearing new clothes with specks of blood on her exposed skin. Her old clothes were in a basket nearby and looked like they'd been in a war, letting him know that she'd been in a serious fight and, as she looked ready to go out again, he presumed that at least she hadn't won.

"What happened?"

"I was attacked."

"Obviously," he said, restraining his sarcasm since it wouldn't help. "By whom?"

"I don't have time to explain," she replied, trying to get by him. "The longer you delay me here, the harder it'll be to track her."

"Her? Someone's been taken?" he asked, getting more worried by the second as bits of the puzzle were revealed to him.

For a moment it looked like Laura might try to force her way past him but he gave her a glare that made it clear she wasn't leaving without answering his questions.

"Cessily," was all she said in reply and, when you got right down to it, she didn't need to say anything more.

"Give me two minutes." He said before running back to his room as fast as his feet would carry him.

As soon as he arrived he did his best to get dressed in his Sesshomaru gear as quickly as possible, finishing by slipping his swords beneath his gold and blue sash. Then with the same speed with which he arrived he raced back to the room that he hoped that Laura was still in, otherwise he was going to have to use his nose to follow her. Fortunately his speed had been such that it had taken him less than the time he'd asked her for to so she had not moved far from where she had been standing before.

"I'm coming with you."

"No," she said with that emotionless façade that always resided on her face when she was about to enter combat.

"They know you. There's no other way they could have taken Cessily while you were there. They'll be expecting you." He said letting some of his inner Sesshomaru out to play in his voice, "They won't be expecting me."

"Or me!" came a voice that he really hoped wasn't who he thought it was.

Turning around, he spotted the young hanyou who had been the bane of his existence since they'd gotten back from Sunnydale. Standing there, wearing the same outfit she had worn when they'd stormed the Initiative, was Chieko, daughter of Tsukiko, his past life's granddaughter though at present he simply called her 'slave driver'. That was because she made sure that any free time he had that wasn't already spoken for by Buffy or the New X-Men was spent learning to master his daiyoukai abilities. It had been decided by Tsukiko, and reluctantly by him, that he needed training in order to fully master the abilities he now possessed. While he had performed satisfactorily both against the Lady of the West and the Demon Research Initiative, they were the result of muscle memory rather than conscious thought. The two of them knew that the time would come when he'd face off against a person or a group that would be too powerful for him to handle with reflexive actions and barely-understood weapons. Thus it had been decided by Tsukiko that Chieko would travel with him to the Institute and do her best to instruct him in how to use his daiyoukai abilities. While it was true that she was hanyou, she had been taught by the best and had learned to use her powers in every conceivable way. It had sounded like a good idea to begin with but, over the course of the last week, he was sorely wishing that he had come up with a solid reason for Chieko **NOT** to come.

She was a slave driver but, reluctantly, he had to admit that after a week of training under her he had a much better grip on his daiyoukai abilities. He had even managed to use some of what she had already taught him to experiment and create a few new techniques… or at least he assumed they were new techniques. To have her come along with him and Laura on a rescue mission, he wasn't sure it'd be a good idea. They weren't exactly good buddies and he could sort of tell that Chieko was annoyed at having to play teacher with him, so perhaps she wanted to come along not because she cared about Mercury but rather because kicking some ass was better than waiting for him to get back. Could he count on her in this venture? Maybe. Should he risk the success of the mission by bringing a relative unknown along? She might not give him a choice in the matter, so it might have been best to keep her where he or Laura could keep an eye on her.

"Right. With two unknowns travelling with you, any plan they might have for stopping you is rendered null and void." He said, laying things out logically for Laura since that would be most effective on her.

For a few moments silence reigned as Laura no doubt weighed the strategic pros and cons of taking additional people on the mission with her. Fortunately she had enough experience weighing the odds of a situation so it didn't take her long to nod in acceptance.

"So what's our first move?" he asked, already working on a couple of suggestions on how to get them around.

"We must gain intelligence on the location of the Facility's east coast complex. That is where they will have taken Cessily." Laura replied professionally and without emotion.

"I assume you have a few ideas for how to start looking for it?" he asked, wondering where this night would go to from here.

"Yes." Laura replied with a slight twinkle in her eye for those who could perceive it.

_Oh boy._ He thought knowing that the twinkle alone meant he was in for a wild ride.

_**The Docks, New York City, Soon After Sundown, Chieko's P.O.V**_

_Not bad for his first attempt at teleportation. _Chieko thought as she looked to the side to where her reincarnated grandfather crouched alongside her on the rooftop. _Guess he really is some reincarnated hotshot and he has plenty of power to boot. _

It had been soon after the people making up the strike team had been decided that they'd discussed the problem of getting to where they need to go. They could not 'borrow' any of the vehicles belonging to the X-Men since there was tighter security around them since the New X-Men 'borrowed' and X-Jet. Leaving on foot would've taken too long, so she'd decided that the time had come for the young daiyoukai to learn one of the more difficult techniques; teleportation. While usually the province of powerful full youkai, her mother had discovered a way that hanyou like them could do it if only over short distances. Given how well Xander had done on previous lessons, she had told him about the technique and how it could be done. While most of her didn't really think he'd be able to do more than get them clear of the Sentinels, a part of her believed that with nothing more than sheer determination he'd be able to surpass her expectations.

As it turned out he did that and more by teleporting her, Laura and himself to New York City in one go.

True, the landing wasn't all that good but all three of them had been skilled enough to manage the landing without serious injury. From there the mutant known as Laura had led them to the docks of the city, explaining that people who've done business with the Facility in the past were located here. They would first take care of the security and then question the man in charge of this area of the criminal network of New York City. X-23 had asked that she and Xander take up positions so that if the man she sought to question tried to make a getaway, he would not escape. It had been ten minutes since she'd last seen the young woman but she doubted that it'd be much longer before the **fun** started.

BLAM!BLAM!BLAM!BLAMBLAM!

"Showtime!" Xander said with a smile of excitement as the sounds of gunfire filled the air.

Looking at the entrance/exit they'd been assigned to watch, it came as little surprise when a human who looked to be in charge came running out of the building with his bodyguard leading the way. It only took the duo a minute or two to get into the vehicle and begin to drive away but she'd yet to encounter a ningen vehicle that could match the speed of a youkai. With about as much effort as jogging from one end of a football field to another, she got in front of the car and used a controlled version of her great uncle's sankon tessō to both stop and disable the car. Then, just as she'd expected, Xander landed on the roof of the vehicle and used his superior strength to rip the metal apart so he could dispatch the bodyguard and apprehend the man they were after. The fool tried to bring a gun to bear but it was useless as a bit of quick hand movement the gun was plucked from the idiot's hand and crushed.

"You have information we require," Xander said using his 'icy badass voice', as she had come to call it. "You get three tries to tell the truth. Lie more than three times and you will be penalized. Do you understand?"

"Yeah! Yeah! Whattaya want to know!" The criminal blathered, sounding like he'd answer any question if it got him out of this situation alive.

"What location is the Facility operating out of here on the east coast?" Xander asked, narrowing his eyes a bit to show how serious he was.

"I don't know!" the criminal replied shakily though the cause was up for debate.

"That is one lie. Know that I have senses keener than any animal on this planet and can tell when someone lies. Do not try to fool me." Xander said, letting his eyes turn to their red with green slits form to further intimidate the filth.

"I-I swear! I don't-!" the top criminal said descending further into his fear.

"Then you are of no further use to me. Goodbye." Xander said as he brought his right hand back and it started to glow a sickly shade of green.

"CADILLAC JONES! On the east side! He knows! Please don't kill me, I don't know anything!" screamed the criminal as the moron realized that lies weren't going to get him anywhere.

"I believe you. Just the same I can't let you go so you can warn the Facility in exchange for some sort of reward." Xander said as his right hand only grew brighter, "Tell Satan to free up some space down in hell. He's going to be getting quite a few new tenants quite soon."

With no hesitation a spray of acidic poison was discharged from her student / grandfather's hands, hitting the man's face and upper torso and causing it to begin to dissolve immediately upon contact. The criminal didn't even get a chance to scream out in pain since his vocal chords were turned into so much mush within the first two seconds. The rest of the body followed over the course of the next fifteen seconds until there was nothing left but a pile of bubbling green liquid that was slowly eating its way through the wooden docks and would likely continue for quite a while. Still, it had done its job. The criminal would not be able to inform the Facility that they were coming leaving the element of surprise on their side where it belonged.

Hearing the sounds of footsteps, she turned to see Laura emerging from the warehouse with blood dripping off various parts of her body but there were only one or two tears in her clothing. It didn't take a genius to figure out what had happened but she decided to ask anyways.

"You done in there?" she asked as both the team regrouped.

"Yes. The man's subordinates have been dealt with." Laura replied with no emotion in her voice to indicate what she'd meant by 'dealt with'.

She knew, though.

In many ways, Laura was much like her mother and Xander sometimes in that they didn't let emotions interfere when some wet work was required. Unlike some people she could mention. It was a good thing in her opinion, actually. Too many people wanted to be heroes when they got powers but had no understanding of the chains that such a label placed on them. To be a hero meant you had to always do the right thing and adhere to a code of ethics that, in reality, no one could hope to live up to. You could never take a life because the people expected you to find a 'better way', even when any true warrior knew that there inevitably were situations where killing was necessary. She knew this. Laura knew this. Xander knew this. This meant they'd decided, as she had, that instead of foolishly trying to be 'heroes' that they would simply be warriors who followed their own codes of conduct until the day they died.

If someone had a problem with that… well, they could come complaining anytime they liked.

"Good. The man gave us the location and the name of our next lead," Xander stated, shaking off what residual poisoned acid was left on his right hand. "Let's go."

"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!" Came a female voice from above.

_Damn. I smelled her coming but I didn't think she'd actually seen us._ She thought as the scent she'd picked up within seconds of the gunfire starting.

This was going to complicate things.

_**The Xavier Institute, X-Mansion, Same Time, Dust's P.O.V **_

_Allah, please give me the wisdom to make sense of what I feel._ Dust thought as she walked down the hallways of the mansion.

It was a prayer that she had been making quite often over the last few weeks and yet she felt as though she had come no closer to an answer than she'd been in the beginning. New emotions that she had never quite felt before were coursing through her body and made it difficult to remain true to the teachings of her people. Some, oh Allah, some even made it oh-so-very tempting to embrace a more westernized way of life that it took all her strength to turn away from such thoughts. At the center of it all, was her unofficial teammate on the New X-Men, Alexander Harris.

During her time at the X-mansion she had seen many strange things and experienced many more odd things but in those cases she could explain matters by simply attributing it to mutant powers or the trials involved with being a mutant. When Xander came, though, a new dimension of unfathomable events began to happen that left her wondering what he truly was and how the world truly worked. In the beginning his powers were nothing too special and certainly nothing beyond the realm of what a mutant could do in terms of strength or speed. That all changed though the night of the attack on the bus that was to carry the depowered members of the student body away from the volatile environment of the Institute. That night would be burned into her memory forever both for the terrible nature of the things she saw as well as the miracles she bore witness to. In the space of twenty minutes she saw a bus load of her friends and classmates explode, killing or injuring those inside, and then witnessed Xander restore them, mutant powers and all, with one slash of his sword. It had been something she could not define or describe as anything short of a miracle. She knew that there existed mutants in the world with the ability to heal, Elixir being one of them, but never had she heard of someone who could revive the dead with their powers or somehow undo the effects of M-Day. This had affected her greatly making her wonder what manner of being could possess such powers.

The events of the days that followed only produced more questions within her and, considering she had quite a few at the beginning, it did not make matters any easier for her.

However the question that plagued her the most also had her clinging to the teachings of the Qur'an as strongly as possible lest she forget herself and behave inappropriately.

The question? Were the feelings she was experiencing when she looked at Xander those of a young woman in love?

She knew not as her life had been such a storm of chaos up until now, that she had not been able to take the time to truly examine how she felt about her life and those that were in it. Simple matters such as friends or learning to control her powers were easy enough to deal with but anything more complicated, like love, had been ignored since no time seemed quite right for such thoughts. Now, though… with Stryker dead, Nimrod defeated and Xander's stay at the Institute confirmed by the presence of his friend Buffy, she found herself wondering more and more about the feelings that threatened to escape her heart when she saw him. He was not… unpleasant to look at and, due to the commotion of Surge's gauntlets revealing Forge's dire predicament, she had received an embarrassing eyeful of Alexander's fit form. The sight had made both her mind and her heart flutter chaotically until the team had left to get dressed for their unofficial rescue mission, yet what she had seen in Nori's room still occasionally rose to the surface of her mind.

She blushed each time it surfaced but, thankfully, her niqāb kept the others from perceiving this.

It was this issue that had her aimlessly wandering the hallways as she tried to think of a way to deal with these emotions before they became a problem. Simply ignoring them was not working and yet accepting them would bring up more questions of how this could co-exist as far as her faith was concerned. According to the teachings of her people, it was the duty of the parents to decide with whom their daughter would become involved with and eventually wed. Yet that was no longer possible with her mother lost in one of the many Afghanistan refugee camps and her father a part of one of the many militant factions. She had no family to consult on this matter, nor any family to direct that part of her life, leaving her own personal judgment as the only thing she could rely on. Nor was she what could be called a typical woman of Islam, considering she was living at a school for mutants and regularly fought beside a group of them. A woman's ward was the home and family. That was what she had been taught and yet the life she was living was not what could be considered adherence to this tradition in the strictest sense. With so many deviations from official teachings, she had to wonder if one more would matter.

"Sooraya!"

Turning around, she saw that it was Megan Gwynn, codenamed Pixie, floating towards her from the hallway she'd just walked through. Deciding to see what the winged young woman wanted, she waited for the teenage girl to catch up to her.

"What is the matter, Megan?"

"Well, you see, I was walking down the hallway earlier on my way to the cafeteria for something to eat when I heard all this commotion by the front doors. I went to see and then I saw Mercury and X-23 fighting in the hall, but then they went to Salem Center to get a coffee, but they wouldn't let Rockslide go, and he was looking so sad." Pixie said, managing to squeeze quite a few words into one breath. "But then Xander was looking for X-23, and then there was a big flash of light outside! And nobody's seen them since, and—"

_Wait! No one's seen Cessily, Xander and Laura since then? _She thought before she said, "Megan, what… could you repeat… I… have you told anyone about this?"

"Um, yeah, I'm telling you right now." Pixie replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Aren't you guys, like, the R.A's now?"

"What's an R.A?" she asked as her concern over her friends was temporarily derailed by the unfamiliar term.

"Sooraya… where are Xander and Laura?" Surge asked from behind her, adding further proof that two members of the New X-Men had gone missing.

"I do not know. I have not seen them since this morning at breakfast," she replied honestly as she turned to see Nori and David walk up to her. "However Pixie says that Laura and Cessily left earlier in the day but did not return. Xander vanished shortly before a bright light lit up the outside of the mansion a little while ago. No one has seen any of them since."

"What!" Surge exclaimed clearly alarmed by this turn of events.

"Could that be why they're asking everyone to gather into the auditorium?" David asked, alerting her to a development she was not aware of.

"Makes sense, considering the mess we made the last time a group of us went someplace without permission," Nori replied, her facing becoming one of determination. "What do you wanna bet that Cessily, Laura and Xander are in the middle of something they can't get out of right now?"

"It's not even a bet. Whenever Xander goes anywhere either with or after a girl, it always leads to him getting in over his head," came another voice approaching the group from the direction she'd been walking in before Pixie had intercepted her. "Question is, who's coming with me to haul that idiot's ass out of the mess he's gotten himself into?"

There, standing with all the presence of a warrior, was Buffy Summers, looking like she would go alone to save her friend if she had to.

She wouldn't though.

The New X-Men didn't abandon their own.

_**The Skyscrapers of New York City, One Hour Later, Ms. Marvel's P.O.V**_

_DAMN! These kids are actually worse than Logan! _Carol Danvers thought as she raced through the air to catch the crook that the kid, classified in the Initiative as Sesshomaru, knocked through a window into open air.

She had been doing a solo patrol of New York City, as she sometimes did when running her own S.H.I.E.L.D heli-carrier became a bother, when she'd caught sight of an explosion down by the docks. Altering her usual flight plan, she'd gone to investigate only to find Sesshomaru, a young woman identified as X-23 in the files and a third young woman with some distinct canine features. With them on the docks was a ruined car, a pool of bubbling green liquid and an unconscious thug that looked like he'd been thrown to the ground hard enough to bounce at least once. Given the signs of a fight, it was clear they'd attacked the people in the warehouse and then dealt with the others before they could escape. Given the blood that was on X-23's body, it was also obvious that the young woman hadn't gone easy on the tough guys inside the warehouse and, if her S.H.I.E.L.D file was accurate, there was a distinct possibility of those inside being dead or dying. It was mentioned in X-23's file that, for the time being, the clone of Wolverine would be allowed to reside at the Xavier Institute until it became clear that they could not curb the young woman's lethal nature. Before she made her presence known, she'd put a call into an investigations team on her heli-carrier to go to the warehouse in thirty minutes to examine the place. If it looked like those inside had either shot each other or had backed the clawed girl into a corner, then she'd let it slide but if it looked like X-23 had killed when it wasn't necessary, then she'd have to have a word with Tony.

Once she had announced her presence, Sesshomaru had explained how a covert scientific organization called 'The Facility' had kidnapped their teammate and that the trio was currently rattling the cages of potential sources of information. Whoever they'd chosen to ask at the warehouse had apparently not had the data they'd wanted but, instead, had pointed them to another potential source of intelligence on the east side of New York City. That was where they were right now in what looked like a front operation for one of the local crime families and, while subtlety wasn't exactly a requirement in situations like this, the trio didn't seem all that concerned about the sleaze balls they were tossing around for info surviving the experience. While Logan could be a bit… vicious when he wanted information from the criminal element, she knew that the X-Man generally didn't kill anyone unless it was in self-defense either of himself or an innocent. These three seemed to be of the mindset that since these people were criminals then the men knew that their lives would be filled with pain and, in all likelihood, not end well. Therefore it was not wrong to meet those expectations by spilling blood, breaking bone and, in this case, not bothering to try and catch the person that one of them knocks out a window.

"Gotcha!" she exclaimed as her hand clamped around the falling crook's foot and she began to slowly decelerate so as not to injure the man with a sudden stop.

Flying back up, she spotted Sesshomaru standing by the broken remains of the window looking down at her. She'd have to tell this kid that if he wanted to be part of the hero set then he had to treat all life equally and not develop a god complex where he decided who lived and who died. Otherwise Tony'd likely send a team to arrest him in the near future.

"You need to be more careful, Sesshomaru. You have to be aware of your environment at all times. If I hadn't been here, this guy'd be street pizza right now. Regardless of what this man may be guilty of, it's not your place to decide whether he lives or dies. Only the courts have the right to decide that."

"I was aware of my environment," he said with little emotion as he turned around and walked away from the window. "I knew you'd rescue him. That was why I didn't bother to hold back when I hit him."

"And if I hadn't been there to catch him?"

"Then I wouldn't have knocked him out the window." Sesshomaru replied without looking back at her.

Floating into the room, she had to wonder where this aloofness was coming from because, according to the file she'd read, the kid had originally just been your typical American teenager before he'd gotten his powers. Now, though, at least in her opinion, the young man seemed to be trying to pull off the 'emotionless badass' routine and was almost managing to pull it off. However the variable that ruined it though was the passion with which the young man fought. It was not the way of an emotionless fighting machine but rather a determined young man who wasn't going to let anything get in the way of his achieving his objective. She'd have to watch the kid and make sure he didn't cross the line.

"Any luck getting the information we need?" Sesshomaru asked Laura, who had a terrified thug pinned down by the neck.

"Yes. We now know where the Facility's east coast research facility is located." Laura replied before bringing back her free hand and popping her claws.

It didn't take a genius to figure out what was going to happen next and so she began to move forward to keep X-23 from killing the man. In the end, though, as she was beaten to the punch by the white haired warrior, who seemed to teleport from one side of the room to the other before clamping down on the wrist of the clone.

"That is enough, Laura. Now that we know where to go, it will be impossible for them to mount a defense in time even if this fool warns them," he said, locking eyes with the clone for a moment before turning to the thug pinned on the ground. "However, if he did warn them, I would be most upset with him. So upset that I might feel compelled to seek him out in order to voice my complaints. Understand?"

"Ye-yeah! Gotcha! They won't find out from me! I swear!" exclaimed the thug in fear, clearly understanding that no reward he might get from the Facility would be worth dying over.

"I will hold you to your word. Be sure to prove to all you know that you are a man of your word." Sesshomaru said before he released Laura's wrist.

She floated for a moment, waiting to see what move X-23 would make but breathed a silent sigh of relief when the twin adamantium claws were retracted and the clone released the man. This was something of a surprise considering how thoroughly the young woman had been conditioned to kill and kill quickly. It would seem that at least in situations like these, X-23 could be influenced by Sesshomaru and made to suppress her conditioned inclination towards using lethal force. It would be something she could give Tony when she delivered her report on the situation afterwards in the hopes that a confrontation with the Xavier Institute could be avoided. So long as her report implied that the clone was under control and did not pose a threat to innocents, she didn't see Stark making a big deal of things.

"The complex is in a remote area of southern Vermont. If we leave now and Sesshomaru teleports us, we can be there in under an hour." Laura said as she moved to rejoin the group. "They will not be able to prepare their defenses in so little time."

"Teleport?" she asked wondering how this ability could be missed from the files.

"It's how Laura, Chieko and myself made it here from the Institute," Sesshomaru replied before looking about the room inquiringly. "Speaking of Chieko, where did she get off to?"

"Right here, 'Sesshomaru-sama'," came the dog-girl's voice as she entered the room from the hallway. "I took care of the reinforcements from the lower floors."

"They still alive?" Sesshomaru asked with a raised eyebrow of inquiry.

"Hai! I know you have a rule about that. A bothersome rule in my opinion," Chieko replied looking like she was annoyed by the no killing rule.

"We have our target's location. Let's go." He stated before moving over to the window.

Watching as X-23 and Chieko moved to positions just behind the young man, she did the same taking up the only vacant spot she could find.

"Simply establish a firm grip on me, Ms. Marvel, and you will be teleported as well." Sesshomaru explained while looking over his shoulder. "Make sure you do not let go. I do not know what would happen if you lost your grip mid-transit."

Nodding at the logic, she reached out with her right hand and established a firm grip on his armor from behind but not so firm that she might accidently damage it with her superhuman strength. The young man nodded towards her and then a white energy field began to form and an odd feeling began flow over her form. It wasn't quite like any other teleportation effects that she'd experienced in her years as a costumed heroine and Avenger because, while there was always a sort of tingling feeling, this one felt weird on her skin. If she had to describe it, it was similar to one of those hot tubs with the massaging jets that hit you in just the right spot soothing the muscles entirely. This tingling feeling only increased as the field gained more and more strength in preparation for departure.

It was then she got a moment of inspiration that brought a smile to her lips as it would both be fun and would give her a little more insight into just what sort of connection existed between Sesshomaru and X-23.

Just as the field was about to be completed she went from a single hand on his armor to wrapping both arms around his neck while lightly pushing her chest into his back. She could feel him stiffen slightly but, to his credit, her move didn't break his concentration and his technique still proceeded to reach its climax as before. Still, looking out of the corner of her eye, she could see the eyes of X-23 narrow and she had her answer. The clone **did** have feelings for the young man, or at least considered him **hers** and didn't liking the idea of some other woman getting all over him. This'd be a good thing to tell Tony when she saw him next. It was one thing to tell him that X-23 could be influenced by the man into restraining herself but it was another to report that there could be emotional connections between the young man and the clone. With this information, it wouldn't be difficult to make sure that they had a way to control the young woman or at least minimize the likelihood that the ex-assassin would go on a killing spree or return to her former masters.

Maybe a little matchmaking was in order?

"Just making sure I don't fall off mid-transit," she said with a slightly lusty voice. "You did warn me after all."

This time there was no mistaking the look of jealous centered anger in Laura's eyes.

_**The East Coast Facility Research Complex, Thirty Minutes Later, Cessily's P.O.V **_

Pain.

Most would think that a girl made up of a substance that had many similarities with liquid mercury would be impervious to both harm and pain. After all, if something could turn itself into a purely liquid state then punches, kicks and solid weapons would just pass through her form without doing a single bit of harm. Those people would be wrong, though, because while solid weapons had little effect on, her energy weapons were another matter entirely. Just as water could be turned into steam if enough heat was applied, so too could a form of liquid mercury be harmed or even destroyed if hit with the right type of energy. She had found this out to her everlasting horror from the moment that she had been captured by the forces of the Facility. They'd used electrical discharges the entire time to keep her too disoriented to form a thought, much less come up with a think up a way to escape them. They'd given her three times the usual discharge once they'd arrived at the facility, rendering her unconscious and by the time she woke up she was already sealed inside the transparent tube she was now in.

Then the pain had started.

With restraints that somehow kept her mentally weakened, they had bombarded her with discharge after discharge of electricity without once telling her **why** they were doing this to her. With every jolt she received it became harder and harder for her to maintain the conditioning that allowed her to maintain her humanoid shape. The few times she did manage to speak with them she did her best to get information while hanging onto the belief that her friends would be coming for her. She believed that Laura had managed to survive the attack and that, once her friend healed up, she'd return to the Institute to rally a rescue party. She knew her friends would not abandon her and that as long as she held on tight everything would work out fine in the end.

It was becoming harder to hold onto that scenario of hope.

She was almost fully conscious now but she knew that all it would take would be one more jolt to send her back into an unconscious state. Peripherally she was aware of the fact that the electrical discharges she had been subjected to had burned away every scrap of clothing she'd been allowed to retain up until now. She was also aware of the fact that everything from the knees down was still in its formless liquid state but her rising consciousness was quickly setting things to rights.

"Wakey, wakey, Miss Kincaid," came the voice of the scientist in charge of her torture sessions.

"Please… your name is Harkins, right? Why are you doing this to me? What do you want?" she asked with the thin hope that what the man wanted she could provide without further pain, "Just talk to me."

"What do we want? The facility I work for is a business, Miss Kincaid. We provide our clients with weapons. In fact, you friend X-23 is one of our best creations," Harkins replied in a conversational tone of voice despite the immorality of his actions towards her so far. "Our current client wanted us to create a very specific item, to do a very specific job. He left it to us as to how to proceed. He did, however, offer to supply us with a single crucial ingredient that was necessary to complete the weapon. Unfortunately you and your friends killed him before he could deliver us the material."

Thinking back to the immediate past, the only person whose death she could be attached was the monster who'd used religion to justify an attack on the Institute.

"Stryker…" she stated voicing her hunch and waited for confirmation.

"Indeed. So that is why we came to collect you, Miss Kincaid. You are the final ingredient." Harkins said, confirming her statement while opening a door to his left.

When the door opened she was presented with a monster because that was the only way she could describe the muscled monstrosity that looked like a dog on steroids and growth hormones. One thing that made it even more hideous though was the fact that it didn't have any skin on it just exposed muscle.

"Oh my God. That thing…" she gasped in disbelief at what she was seeing.

"Impressive, isn't it? I'm thinking of calling it 'Predator X'," Harkins said putting on a set of goggles to go beneath his glasses. "All it needs now is skin. Your skin."

It took her less than two seconds to realize what was coming and the memories of the pain she had suffered up until now caused her to tremble.

"Nonononono…please, don't…don't do this!" she pleaded as she tried anew to find a way out of the tube she'd been imprisoned in.

"Shhhh, it's okay…it's okay…we don't need **all** of your flesh and it's very likely you're going to survive!" Harkins said with mocking comfort as he brought a machine online. "Which is good because the creature will be hungry when the bonding process is completed."

With these words a laser grid sprang up in front of her, causing her to retreat as far from it as was possible.

"Please… you don't have to—" she begged but then it was all pain as the high intensity lasers began their nefarious work cutting into her body, "AAAIIIIEEEEE!"

The potency of pain was something she was becoming a little too familiar with.

All she could do as her coherent thoughts began to fragment was pray that someone would saver her from this soon.

She wasn't sure how much more she could take of this.


	10. Chilly Confrontations

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material contained herein. They belong to their respective creators and associated companies. I make no profit off of this whatsoever. I write because it is fun and because there are those who enjoy my work.

_**The Front Doors of the X-Mansion, Same Time, Buffy's P.O.V **_

"Is it really necessary for me to wear this?" Buffy asked as she looked down at what she'd been told was a spare of Surge's battle outfit.

The top was a white and gold number with the X-men insignia on the chest while leaving her skin exposed from the waist to about half a foot below her chest. There were no sleeves on it and, when combined with the baggy gray cargo pants, it could almost pass for something she **might** be willing to wear out in public. However it looked a little too much something straight from a comic book that Xander would read and that made her uncomfortable.

"Don't knock it. It might look like something you'd buy from a department store but it's actually something Beast made in his lab." Nori said as they began walking towards the front gates of Institute. "It's strong enough to stop most small caliber bullets and bladed weapons. It's not much but it's better than nothing."

"If this is suppose to protect me then why am I flashing so much skin?" she asked, wondering what the point of the uniform was if it left such prime target areas exposed.

"Because if we designed it to be tactically sound then we'd look like storm trooper rejects. This way we get some protection and look hot at the same time," Surge replied as they got closer to the front gate and the monster-sized robot the others called a Sentinel. "Now get ready. With the entire Institute in lock down thanks to Xander's exit, I doubt the toy soldier in the Sentinel is just going to let us walk by. Are you sure you want to come with us?"

It was a question that Dust and Rockslide had asked her each once before and, while she was starting to get a bit annoyed with it, she could understand how things must look to them. While she wasn't an ordinary human anymore, she was just starting to get an understanding of what her powers were and what she could do with them. Even if, to the best of her knowledge, she still possessed her Slayer powers for the most part, that didn't necessarily mean she'd be of any help if things turned into a mutant battle of some kind. Still, she was determined to help Xander get out of whatever mess he'd gotten into with Laura and Cessily. If she couldn't help with the fighting, the least she could do was act as a distraction so that the others could get their shots in. She refused to simply sit in the mansion waiting for them to get back. She was action girl, not wait-nervously-at-home-hoping-for-the-best-girl.

"If you don't take me with you, I'll find a way to follow. My friend's in danger and I'm going to help," she replied, showing her resolve on her face. "It's that simple."

"Yeah… I guess it is." Surge replied as the Sentinel took notice of their approach and moved to obstruct their path.

"SORRY KIDS. THE INSTITUTE IS IN LOCKDOWN UNTIL THE SITUATION HAS BEEN DETERMINED." the man inside the Sentinel said. "PLEASE RETURN TO THE MANSION."

"Not going to happen, Tin Can." Surge said, letting a little of her power show on the surface of her skin in the form of electrical arcs, "We've got friends in trouble and we're going to help them. Move."

"I CAN'T DO THAT. PLEASE RETURN TO YOUR ROOMS."

"Maybe I didn't make myself clear," Surge stated, letting even more electricity dance across her body. "You've got about one second to get out of my way."

"LOOK, KID… DON'T DO THIS. SOMETHING'S GOING DOWN, AND WE HAVE TO KEEP YOU ON THE CAMPUS GROUNDS." stated the O.N.E agent, sounding like he didn't like where this was going. "WE'RE HERE TO HELP YOU, NORI. LET'S JUST FIND OUT WHAT'S HAPPENING, AND THEN—"

"Rockslide… sic him." Surge said to the powerhouse member of their little rescue squad.

"Awww, yeah. I like you more and more every day, Ashida," declared the rocky mutant as he prepared to send some hurt the Sentinel's way.

However, before the violence could begin, a sharp whistle grabbed everyone's attention, causing all to look behind them to see one of the senior X-Men standing there, looking none too impressed by what she was seeing.

"HEY! X-BABIES!" the brunette named Shadow-something yelled before turning down the volume a bit. "Knock it off and come inside. We've got some info on Cess, Xander and Laura. You're going to want to hear it."

For a moment it looked like Surge might get defiant but apparently this Shadow-girl had learned her 'resolve face' from Willow somehow because the blue haired girl caved. Seeing the person who'd decided to lead this little rescue mission give in, she supposed the best she could do was play along and hope that the brunette was telling the truth about the info. Through the halls of the mansion and down into the sub-basement they went until they began to approach a circular door, outside of which stood the headmaster with the stick up his butt and some military Colonel. Nothing was said when the group arrived but the circular door was opened and the two older men led them into a perfectly spherical room with a walkway extending towards the center where a control console was located. Sitting in the only chair was the blonde Queen C, Emma Frost, and standing beside her was a guy she'd seen hanging around Surge sometimes.

"Do you have them?" Cyclops asked as he strode towards the woman who helped run the school with him.

"I'm piecing it together now. X-23 and Mercury left the school to go into Salem Center after… an incident," Emma replied, sounding a little strange when she used the word 'incident'. "Onyxx saw X-23 re-enter an hour later from the entrance to the Morlock Tunnels. She was covered in blood."

"Why didn't he report it?" asked the Colonel in the typical military fashion.

"Onyxx has… issues, Colonel Reyes." Emma replied, dancing around the details of the matter. "I'm activating Cerebra now. You all might want to hold onto something."

With quite a bit of disorientation a holographic image of the United States of America appeared with one area, the border between the states of Vermont and New York, highlighted in particular. With the others she waited she got the distinct impression looking at Frost that the woman was getting increasingly frustrated, implying that she was having significant trouble locating the missing students.

"Cessily isn't show up. Dammit!" Frost bit out as she sounded like she was about to redouble her efforts.

"What about Xander and X-23? Maybe if you find them, they'll—" Mr. Glasses suggested before being cut off by Emma Frost.

"Unless you have any other obvious advice, Mr. Alleyne, I'd like to concentrate now." Frost said in tones colder than her name, making it clear the young man should shut up.

It didn't take the blonde long to act on the young man's suggestion though.

"I have them. Xander, Chieko and X-23 are at the northern border of New York. They've been joined by Miss Marvel of the Fifty State Initiative," Emma said, sounding like she didn't like that last part. "They think they know where Cessily is. She's been captured… by the people who created X-23. The children and Miss Marvel are going after Cessily. I'm going to try and stop them."

There was a period of silence but there was no mistaking the gasp of fear that came from Emma Frost a few moments later.

"They're gone. They're both gone. I've lost them." Emma said, sounding genuinely concerned for the fate of the four wayward students.

"David, prep the Blackbird. We're going after them." Cyclops ordered immediately, sounding like a stick-up-his-ass leader.

"Let the O.N.E help, Cyclops." Colonel Reyes said sounding, like he genuinely wanted to help rather than like a stiff as a board soldier. "We know a thing or two about tracking mutants. Between the two of us we'll find them much quicker than separately."

There was a stand-off for awhile there and, though she could sort of understand where the friction was coming from, this was neither the time nor the place for a testosterone pissing match.

"Well, I've heard enough. You guys can finish measuring your dicks and the rest of us sane people can get on the plane so we can pull Xander's butt out of the fire and kick some bad guy as in the process." she said, throwing her hands up in disgust as she turned and began to leave the room. "I'll be in the hanger waiting for you idiots to grow some sanity."

While she couldn't equate these people as being as bad as Travers and the Council, they did seem to have some of the same problems, namely being more concerned with their reputations than the lives of their people.

_**Remote Location, Southern Area of the State of Vermont, Twenty Minutes Later, Laura's P.O.V**_

The quality of the Facility security troopers had not improved.

This is something that she had been able to determine after engaging and neutralizing the first four. She would have killed them to make sure that they could not rise to cause trouble later but both Ms. Marvel and Xander had made it clear that lethal force was only to be used when there was no non-lethal way available. Strategically this was unwise since they were in the middle of enemy territory with only the resources they'd brought with them and on-site procurement to use in this rescue attempt. Pulling their punches could turn out to be a fatal error since rendering a foe unconscious took more time than simply killing them. The more time they gave the employees of the Facility to bring their defenses to bear, the more likely it was that an item would be found capable of defeating them all. Weapons were the number one product of this organization so it would not be beyond the realm of possibility for them to possess one capable of defeating all four of them.

Xander was keeping close to her and guarding her flank to make sure that she was not assaulted from that direction. With his superior physical capabilities he was experiencing little in the way of difficulties in defeating the foes that stood before him. The only real trouble he appeared to have was measuring the amount of strength he put behind each blow so that it only defeated the soldier rather than seriously harm or kill. While she had seen him progress efficiently in his training sessions with Chieko, she could also tell that it would be a while yet before it could be said that he had mastered his daiyoukai abilities. Her friend had an easier time with the more energy-based elements of his powers, though, as evidenced by his successful teleports thus far, but considering his experience with the supernatural it is likely he is applying what he'd learned from Rupert Giles during training. While not what one would call studying, one can only conduct research so many times before some of the information contained in the ancient tomes is imprinted upon the mind. This unintentionally absorbed knowledge of magic, demonology and the supernatural most likely provided him with the clues he needed to absorb Chieko's lessons more quickly. Unfortunately those abilities that utilize energy or poison were almost completely lethal in the way they could be employed with only a few controlled ways that those on the receiving end could be hit without instant death. Xander did not possess that control just yet.

Chieko, on the other hand, was wading into the enemy soldiers with rare skill, although it could be said that her blows were a tad on the heavy side as, even with the sound of automatic gunfire, she could hear bones breaking. Not that she particularly cared but it would likely mean a lecture from either Ms. Marvel or Xander afterwards once they'd rescued Cessily and left the area. Nevertheless, she was impressed at the skill being shown and judged the hanyou as being a possible future sparring partner should she ever need one for the danger room.

Ms. Marvel… was doing adequately from the air, using a combination of dives and energy attacks from an elevated position to break up the larger concentrations of enemy agents. Still, she could not shake the irritation she'd felt when the woman had wrapped her arms around Xander's neck prior to their leaving New York City. The blonde woman had played it off as a joke once they'd arrived above the Facility complex but she suspected that there was more to it than that. She would not take action until something more overt was done but she would be watchful for any more… improper actions. Should the leader of the New York branch of the Fifty State Initiative further violate what could be considered acceptable behavior for a public superhero, she would swiftly deliver punishment upon the woman.

"If these are the best that the Facility can throw at us, we'll have Mercury rescued and be gone inside of fifteen minutes," Xander said as he finished using one of the armed guards as a melee weapon on the others.

SKREEEEEEEEEEE!

The sound was both deafening and painful as her enhanced senses were hit with such high frequency sound waves that she was brought to her knees while her hands reflexively went to her ears in an effort to block the sound. She could see out of the corner of her eyes, when they weren't scrunched shut in pain, that the others were experiencing similar difficulties with the sonic attack. However the ones that seemed especially in pain though were Chieko and Xander. Xander was able to stay on his feet but she thought she could see a small trickle of blood going down the right side of his neck. Chieko was already on the floor biting her lip in pain with one of her fangs actually drawing blood.

"I love you cocky hero types. You're so overconfident," came the familiar voice of her former Handler, Kimura. "Sure, enhanced senses can be helpful but they can also be turned against you. As for the Blonde Bimbo, flying is a little hard when you can't think straight."

She could sense that the bitch was getting closer but, with her enhanced sense of hearing under assault, it was all she could do to remain both sitting as well as conscious. She wanted to destroy the sonic device so that they could turn the tide of battle back in their favor but the noise was messing with her sense of balance.

"Feels like your brain is turning to mush, doesn't it? Well, trust me that's nothing compared to what's in your future." Kimura said before pulling her off the ground by her hair. "So X, it looks like you've got yourself a boyfriend. I'm impressed… he's not a bad catch but you've got a lot to learn about first dates. Keep watching, handsome! You won't want to miss this. Welcome hom—"

That was as far as Kimura got before the sonic device stopped its assault and the blade in the handler's grip was stopped an inch before it would have pierced her chest. As her healing factor worked to rapidly heal up the damage done by the attack, she could see that somehow Xander had managed to block out the effects of the device and now had an iron grip on Kimura's right wrist.

"You made two mistakes, ningen." Xander said in an icy tone she had only heard from him when something truly angered him. "The first was thinking that your sonic device had rendered me completely helpless. The second was believing that you could harm **Laura** in my presence and get away with it."

"So what're you going to do about it, lover boy?" Kimura asked, looking confident but so far not having much luck in freeing her right hand.

"This." He replied before doing something that had never been done to the handler before; Xander broke Kimura's right wrist with a resounding crack.

"AAAHHHH! You bastard! You're going to pay for—AAHHH!" Kimura yelled before her words were broken off with yet another snap of bone between her wrist and elbow.

"Silence." He said without any emotional change in the tone of his voice.

While she did gain some satisfaction in the pain that was being dealt to her abusive ex-handler, she knew it was an ineffective way of dealing with her. Kimura possessed significant invulnerability thanks to her ability to control her density and reconstruct her body flawlessly if she was ever injured. The only way to kill her was to do lethal damage to a vital organ in one blow. If Kimura died before she could consciously use her powers to restore herself, then and only then would the fight truly be over. She was about to inform Xander of this when he released his hold on her ex-handler's wrist one second and then clamped down on the woman's throat the next. Slamming her into a wall, it was clear that he had noticed that his approach was not working and had decided on another.

"I am aware that you have some special abilities that you were given to make it impossible for Laura to harm you," Xander said while putting more pressure on the throat. "Let's see if I can do better."

With those words the hand that Xander had around Kimura's throat began to glow neon green and a familiar smell reached her nose. It was the smell from his poisonous acid and, while she knew it was not like normal acid, she didn't know if it'd be enough to overcome the hateful woman's powers. Green smoke rose from beneath his hand as the woman's clothes were burned away by the acid but it was only a minute later that signs began to show that the substance might actually be succeeding in harming Kimura. There were growing signs of discomfort on the evil woman's face but there was no pain to indicate that serious damage was being done to her body. While it might be possible for him to burn through her neck given time, this was something they did not have if they wanted to rescue Cessily.

"Is that the best you can do, lover boy?" Kimura asked with the discomfort showing in her voice. "If all you can do is give me a nasty rash then I think you need more training."

"You are right. This method will take too long." Xander said before throwing Kimura **HARD** across the room into a stone wall. "It's time for something a little more drastic. Let us see if this works."

With those words he reached down with both hands and withdrew both the Tessaiga and Bakusaiga from their sheathes before going into a ready stance.

"Sesshomaru! NO! I might not know what sort of control you have over those weapons but I know that they're overkill." Miss Marvel exclaimed, finally recovered fully from the sonic attack. "Heroes don't do kill. You know that."

"There is one flaw in your words, Ms. Marvel. I have never once claimed to be a hero." Xander said without taking his eyes off of a slowly recovering Kimura. "A hero is someone who is a role model of goodness, who always does the right thing but doesn't stray far from the public's image of what a hero should be. That is not me at all. I am merely a man who obeys his heart and does his best to do the right thing, no matter what. There is a difference between the right thing as seen by the public and what is truly the right thing. Returning this… woman's evil upon her is what I judge to be the right thing."

"Then you need to be re-educated in what is right and wrong because I won't let—" Ms Marvel said as she moved to place herself in between Xander and Kimura.

"Chieko." Xander said without diverting his attention one bit.

In a move of surprising skill and agility, the hanyou young woman tackled the superheroine to the ground before placing the blonde in a hold that would render her strength useless. It wouldn't last for long, though. If it was merely super strength alone then it might have been possible but Carol Danvers also possessed the power of unaided flight and so could use that to free herself from the hold. Thankfully Xander didn't waste the opportunity he'd been given.

"KAZE NO KIZU! BAKUSAIGA!" Xander cried as he swung both swords towards Kimura, unleashing their power.

However, unlike how he described using these weapons against Nimrod, the two torrents of energy didn't merge but rather stayed separate on their own individual paths. Nevertheless they both struck their target head on and whether or not they did significant damage to Kimura or not didn't matter since the attacks were powerful enough to propel the bitch far away. Hopefully this would delay her former handler's return until long after they'd managed to get away with Cessily.

"Now that that is dealt with, lets go find Cessily and get out of this cesspool." Xander said smoothly, returning to his usual emotional self as he sheathed his blades with the sound of grinding steel.

Nodding, she fell into step behind him with Chieko and Ms. Marvel picking up the rear. She didn't know whether the blonde woman would report this to her superiors but she promised that if the Fifty State Initiative tried to arrest Xander, they'd have to get through her first.

She couldn't promise that there'd be no fatalities.

_**A Laboratory Inside the Facility Complex, Ten Minutes Later, Xander's P.O.V**_

"Cessily!" Xander cried as he bust down the doors that led to the room where he believed Mercury to be in.

He cast his eyes about the room, looking for some sign of where the redheaded cousin of the T-1000 could be and, on his first pass of the room, he found what he was looking for. Swirling around with a life of its own inside of a glass tube was a mass of liquid metal but not once did any part of it take on a coherent shape. He didn't need Dr. McCoy to tell him that that was a bad sign. It was a given amongst people with the ability to manipulate their forms like Mercury could that they conditioned themselves to hold the same form they had prior to their powers manifesting. If they didn't do this then their powers would be chaotic or they'd lose their shape to become a pile of something on the floor. For Cessily to be unable to maintain her usual appearance could only mean that something had been done to her to break the conditioning completely. Perhaps not only break it but also make it so that the young woman couldn't bring her willpower to bear to restore herself. It caused the anger that had been simmering within him to start bubbling once more as his mind was producing various possible torture scenarios.

Crossing over to the tube, he slashed at the tube with one of his finger claws four times to create an opening so as to remove his friend from her place of pain.

"Cessily… can you hear me? I'm here, we're here, so don't worry," he said as he tried to induce some sign of consciousness. "Please pull yourself together. I know it's hard to do but we need to get out of here."

"Xander… something is wrong. Cessily's scent… it's everywhere." Laura said but he was only partially aware of this as he continued to try and provoke some sign that Cessily was still alive and not…and not…dead.

"She's right. Mercury's scent is coming from someplace other than the tube but I can't figure out where it's coming from." Chieko said placing her hands on the hilts of her kodachi, "We need to get out of here **now**."

"Fine. We'll do this the more direct way," he said as he rose to his feet and unsheathed the Tenseiga. "Come back to us, Cessily."

Raising the blade up for a slash in the hopes that it would be enough to restore Mercury completely, it was only at the last second that he sensed something coming at him from behind. Not wanting his friend to receive an attack meant for him, he chose to do something that was ambitious even for him. With one move he completed the slashing of the sword that had the ability to restore Cessily to full health and then, flowing from that move, he executed a spinning reverse kick that slammed into whatever had been intending to attack him while evading its assault at the same time. He put all the strength he could muster on such short notice into the kick and, luckily for both him and Mercury, it was enough to turn aside the attacker while not being harmed in the least. When the kick was complete, though, and both feet were back on the ground that he was treated to a sight that made him more certain than before that the Facility and all personnel should be wiped out. It looked like a dog that had been pumped up on steroids, growth hormones and whatever ooze turned those turtles into ninjas. However the skin that was so similar to Cessily was what told him why they'd needed Mercury so bad they'd kidnap her. The creature was covered in a liquid mercury-like substance. It was also apparently quite resilient because, even though he hit it with the same amount of strength that had once put Chieko two football fields away during training, it was looking done the worse for wear.

At the moment though he didn't care what it was or what it could do. All that mattered was that Cessily was healed from her ordeal. Physically, at least that is.

"You feeling better, Cess?" he asked while making sure to maintain a position between her and the creature.

"Y-yes…just feeling so…tired." Mercury replied, looking more like her usual everyday self, albeit making all the motions of someone that had pulled an all-night cram session. "Be careful. There's more than one of those things."

While he was gratified to find out that Cessily was more or less healed, he didn't like the sound of there being more than one of those mega bow-wows. While he'd like to think more than one meant that there'd only be one or two more, he figured that with the way his luck went it'd be more like ten to twenty more. He didn't have much more time than that to think on matters since the creature chose to go on the offensive. Scooping up Cessily immediately, he used his superior speed to put some distance between them and the beast. Thankfully the others hadn't been idle during all this time and Miss Marvel managed to keep the freak dog from continuing their way.

"We're getting out of her people!" Ms. Marvel yelled as she fired off an energy blast to send her sparring partner hard into a wall, "X-23! You take the lead! Sesshomaru, you're next! Then Chieko while I'll take up a rear position to guard against pursuit!"

While he didn't like the idea of the blonde lady taking command, he had to admit that she probably had more experience with this sort of thing. Turning to Laura, who was delivering a final cut to her sparring partner, he nodded to indicate that he agreed with the plan. She got a weird look on her face for a moment but it was gone almost as soon as he finished taking in all its characteristics so he brushed it off as nothing. Falling into a brisk run behind Laura, they made their way through the hallways, dispatching any security soldiers they came across in their effort to return to the place they'd broken in at. Once there he could use his teleportation ability to get them back to the Institute so Hank could give Mercury a more thorough once over to make sure there wasn't anything the Tenseiga missed. He knew he had hit her with a fairly decent dose of energy but he couldn't be certain that it had been a complete restoration since, aside from 'magic', he didn't know just how the sword healed people.

They were just about to reach the room where they'd fought most of the security soldiers when his nose picked up a familiar scent on the wind. It was Mercury's but it wasn't coming from the redhead in his arms but rather someplace above and behind them. It could only be those creatures giving pursuit.

"We've got incoming!" he yelled ahead to Laura while keeping his eyes on the area around him, "Two or three of those dumb monster mutts area coming up from behind!"

"Then we have to pick up the pace!" Chieko said with her two kodachi unsheathed and ready for use, "While killing those things might be fun, I'm presuming that Mercury's health comes first."

"Yes, it does. Time to see how fast those mutts can really run," he said as he picked up the pace and with speed that few could match, placing Mercury on his back with her arms wrapped around his neck.

When he caught up to Laura, he immediately scooped her up in his arms then poured on the speed to get them to the extraction point sooner rather than later. He knew that Ms. Marvel wouldn't have any trouble keeping pace and, while Chieko might be hanyou, she should possess sufficient speed to not be left behind. Sniffing every few seconds, he could sense that they were putting some distance between the monster dogs and them but there was still the possibility of the creatures engaging them one more time before the rescue group departed.

When he arrived at the spot where he'd made the dramatic entrance of crashing through the ceiling, he set both ladies down and turned to wait for the blonde heroine and his past life's granddaughter.

"Defensive positions, Laura. Miss Marvel and Chieko should arrive any minute and then we're out of here," he said as he waited in a battle stance, ready to defend Cessily's life. "Nothing gets by us until then understand?"

"Acknowledged." Was all the clone of Wolverine said as the sounds of metal claws being popped reached his ears.

It was two minutes later that both Ms. Marvel and Chieko appeared running (or in the blonde's case, flying) down the hallway rapidly towards them. It really looked as though they were going to make it out of there without having to deal with those artificial weapons but then Murphy decided to butt in and prove him wrong. Displaying unusual intelligence the two side entrances to the room exploded inwards to reveal one silver mutt each. Considering that he didn't think them to be much smarter than your average wild animal, it shouldn't have been possible for them to pull off such a pincer movement. They should have stayed in a single hunting pack and chased them down the same route through the hallways to get to this room.

The entire place then shook, shocking him. The place was _solid_ and it was shaking like a leaf.

Before either he or Laura could take action against the two monster dogs, the ceiling above was ripped away to reveal a sight that he had to admit brought a big smile to his face. Descending from a hovering Blackbird was Cyclops, Surge, Miss Frost, Shadowcat, Elixir, Colossus, Dust, Buffy and Rockslide. One of the O.N.E Sentinels had apparently been behind the sudden removal of the roof and while he wasn't exactly happy to see the tin can he'd let it slide this once. Hearing footfalls coming from the hallway that Chieko and blondie had just come down, he found he had further reason to be glad for the arrival of reinforcements. More soldier security guards had shown up and despite the presence of two of their organization's creations they were opening fire like they could handle things themselves.

"X-Men! Take them down!" Cyclops called out to his teammates as he unleashed a powerful optic blast on one of the monster dogs.

"Santo! Sooraya! Buffy! Get to Cessily and the others!" Surge ordered as she used her electrical powers to do further damage to the beast that the headmaster of the Institute had targeted.

With that the battle began in earnest with things definitely favoring the good guys. The soldiers proved to be little challenge to the X-Men and their younger counterparts while the beasts only managed to last longer because of their animal instincts. That or they were smarter than your average mutt and could anticipate attacks well enough to evade them. It was as he was taking stock of the battle that a thought occurred to him that immediately had him scanning the surrounding area for the variable he'd just noticed was missing. There had been three monster mutts but as far as he could tell only two were on the battlefield at the moment with one being targeted by the O.N.E Sentinel. Not trusting his eyes to pick out the missing monster, he closed them and instead used his ears and his nose to try and sense anything lurking about. It wasn't easy for him since he had not had a whole lot of practice even with all the time that had passed since being transformed physically into his past self. In the end it proved to be a futile effort because wherever the third monster mutt was, it wasn't anywhere within range of his senses. Through training with Chieko they had determined that his effective range with his senses was about a fifth of a mile with the absolute limit being closer to a mile, but without any real clarity once outside of the fifth of a mile range. Had the beast somehow realized that its life was in danger if it continued its pursuit? Or had its masters somehow commanded it to abandon its current prey for some reason?

_I don't know where that thing is but I doubt I've seen the last of it._ He thought as the battle finally came to an end and the various groups of good guys began to gather together.

_**Two Days Later, Xavier Institute, Sunset, Mercury's P.O.V**_

It'd been two days since she'd returned to the Institute. Two days since Dr. McCoy had given her a clean bill of health but still advised she stay in the infirmary for at least twenty-four hours for observation.

She'd retreated to her room as soon as she was free to do so and had pretty much been staying there since. She didn't feel like being around people at the moment, didn't want to see their pitying looks, and so only left her room when she had to. She'd considered just going about the Institute like everything was normal but, whenever she tried to leave her room, memories of what she'd gone through while in the Facility's complex leapt to the forefront of her mind. This always sent her back to her bed where she waited for the foul memories to fade back into the background, where she could successfully repress them for the most part. It had taken her about six hours to figure out that the reason why she hadn't left her room was because there was no one out there who could sympathize with what she'd been through. Sure, Wolverine had apparently had an experience with a human organization that experimented on mutants but he and she weren't really all that close. In fact she figured it'd be safe to say that the physical education teacher wasn't really close to anyone in the first place.

That was why she'd asked Sooraya to send Laura to her room.

The clone/sister of Wolverine had been through a similar torture with the Facility and for much longer than she. Before she'd been kidnapped, she'd thought she'd been able to imagine what it must have been like for her friend but now that she'd gotten a taste of it herself, she knew she'd been a fool. Nothing could prepare you for the truth of the experience. Now she could totally understand how some war veterans could get into such a foul mood sometimes whenever someone got too sympathetic with them. She had to admit that if someone other than Laura tried to approach her with phrases like 'I understand how you feel' or 'I can imagine how horrible it must have been' she would be pretty angry with them as well.

Turning her head towards the door that was being tapped on, she saw Laura peek her head in and she felt a little better now that there was someone she could talk to about her experience.

"Sooraya said you wanted to talk to me." Laura said as she entered the room.

"I just wanted to thank you. For saving me." She said waving the dark haired young woman closer, "Again."

She took a deep breath as she tried to share her horrible experience with the one person who could perhaps understand what she had been put through.

"Those people…The Facility. What they did to me…" she said at a volume barely above a whisper since it was so hard to say the words, "Did you really spend your whole life there?"

"Yes." Laura replied promptly but with a touch of sympathy in her voice that was a bit of a surprise.

With that one word her mind tried to imagine what it must have been like and stretched the time she'd been experimented on by The Facility until it reached fifteen years. Her mind almost shut down at the images brought forth and almost on instinct she threw her arms around Laura both for her own comfort as well as to show her friend how sorry she was.

"Oh God, Laura…they hurt me so bad!" she exclaimed with tears running down her face, "It hurts so much! It hurts…"

"I know." Laura said before somewhat awkwardly returning the hug.

Nothing more was really said after that.

They just held onto each other for comfort, even though she wasn't sure whether Laura benefited from it as much as she was as time passed. However her friend didn't leave the entire time, even though she later found out that it had been a full five hours that they'd been together. For that she was grateful. Some, even though they were friends, might have tried to extricate themselves from the embrace after the first hour or two. Yet Laura Kinney never moved or tried to leave even once.

Later when she tried to get some sleep she found herself still feeling haunted by what she'd been through. However there was one other thought that brought her some measure of comfort when the shadows of pain began to gain some ground against her. It was the memory of how safe she felt when Xander had held her in his arms and carried her away from the horrible room that Harkins had caused her such pain in. She'd been a little self-conscious, essentially being nude in his arms, but at the same time there'd been this feeling of… safety that had caused her to feel such comforting warmth throughout her body. Even now she could still embrace the memory enough that she could almost fool herself into believing she was still there if only to push back the darkness. Eventually, as the soothing feeling of that memory dispelled the ghosts keeping her from falling asleep, a peaceful darkness enveloped her letting her descend into unconsciousness at long last.

It would be the first peaceful sleep she'd had in two days.


	11. Fire and Pain

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material contained herein. They are the rightful property of their respective creators and associated companies. I make no profit off of this whatsoever. I write because it's fun and because there are those who enjoy reading my works.

_**One Week Later, The X-Mansion Cafeteria, Evening, Xander's P.O.V**_

_Alright! Let's see if I forgot anything._ Xander thought as he looked out at the results of two hours hard work.

It had all started this morning when he'd received a telepathic conference call from the Cuckoos telling him that the time had come for him to pay up on the debt to them he owed for his covert call to Giles. They'd re-established that it would be a romantic dinner for just the four of them and that he had to cook the meal himself rather than taking them to a restaurant. He'd made a decent effort to see if he could persuade them to settle on something else for their payment but they were dead set on their romantic dinner. They said that even if it did turn out to be a one time thing that it would still be fun and would only add to the triplets' reputations among the other students. Phoebe even implied that if he was willing they might even extend their date to a somewhat more… private location if the meal turned out to be good enough. Judging from the momentary surge of embarrassment, shock and lust he got through the telepathic connection, it was fair to say that he had a decent idea of what the young woman thought they'd need the privacy for. He had broken off the connection right then and there but he couldn't deny feeling a little bit of lust himself at the idea indicated by the most ambitious sister. After all, they were his age, beautiful, sexy and it was a pretty common fantasy among teenage guys to do it with triplets and him most definitely not being the exception to that trend. The only thing that kept him from actively thinking along those lines was the fact that he didn't really feel anything more than friendship for them. No romance, nothing beyond a basic level of lust that just about all guys would feel looking at those three.

No, he didn't feel romantic towards them because, whether he liked it or not, his heart had chosen another to receive his more-than-friendship feelings.

Laura.

The young woman who'd started out this little adventure of his back in NYC had started out as someone who he felt the need to save and had evolved into someone more important. He now saw her as the one person aside from Buffy that he felt the closest to, pure and simple. At the moment he doubted that the common resident of the mansion could see the changes but, for those that spent quite a bit of time with her, it was clear there were some differences worth a before and after photo. She smiled a bit every now and then with those times almost always been appropriate times rather than if she did it at random meaning they were genuine smiles instead of fake ones. She also had a sense of humor about her that was quite sharp and, while most of the forms it took were deadpan humor, he'd caught a few things with these new eyes of his that showed she could do other forms as well. It was still rough and months away from being at a level everyone could pick up on but it was there. She was also capable of such acts of kindness that you'd swear the 'stone cold killer' routine was just an act she came up with to push people away. It was still going to be a long road for her but he was confident that with him standing by her side she would make it and after that last step she'd be a sight to behold.

Shaking his head, he did his best to file away his thoughts on Laura in the back of his mind because, while this date was likely to be a one time thing, he didn't think the Cuckoos would appreciate it if he had X-23 on the brain the entire night. It'd be the same sort of thing as talking about another woman while sitting in front of the one that was supposed to be the sole focus of your thoughts that night. Considering all three of them were telepaths and had quite a bit of power to their names when they decided to pull off a co-operative effort, it would not be wise to upset them. Doing his best to lock any thoughts of Laura away from the surface of his mind, he returned to his original task of making sure everything was perfect for the one time date.

He had candles lit at the best spots around the table they'd be sitting at, just about all the accessories for such a meal were on the table as well as white in color, he had a bottle of non-alcoholic bubbly on ice nearby and the meals were being kept warm in the oven. Looking down at himself, he hoped that the clothes he was wearing were sophisticated enough that they wouldn't earn him a fashion police lecture but not so formal that the girls would jump to conclusions. This was a one time thing and he had no intention of doing anything that would bloody up the proverbial waters and make them try for something more than what would happen tonight.

He doubted any of them would survive Laura's wrath if they forgot the temporary nature of the date.

He'd already had to put off a team sparring session with her and the look in her eyes told him she had some upsetting suspicions about his reasons. He had never once said anything about the Cuckoos but he could swear that every female on the planet had some sort of sixth sense that tipped them off when a guy was hiding something from them. Hopefully she wouldn't be curious enough to do any snooping, otherwise his bad luck would have her stumbling into the cafeteria at the worst possible moment. He had no idea what that moment would be but he was fairly certain it'd result in Laura giving him the Ms. Roboto routine for at least two weeks. That and it would likely undo whatever progress had been made in getting the girl to work towards being a normal teenage girl someday.

Seeing that everything seemed to be ready, he figured it was time to pick up the ladies at their room and formally escort them down to the cafeteria. He knew that some might think that he was going overboard here and that he secretly might have more than friendship feelings for the blondes since he was going so far with preparations, but the truth is this is the least he felt he could get away with. The three had been longtime apprentices of Miss Frost and, while they had taken steps to distance themselves from the bitch, the older woman's high class tastes were likely still with them. Therefore a simple trip to a local restaurant wouldn't cut it, nor would eating a meal like it was just another day at the X-Mansion be satisfactory as far as they were concerned. So he figured the candles, the elaborate set-up and his semi-formal clothes would be the least he could do if he wanted them to be satisfied enough to consider the debt paid.

Besides which, he figured it'd be good practice for when he had to do it for the young lady he really had feelings for was ready for it.

After putting up a sign on the door to the cafeteria saying it was off limits for the next couple of hours, he began to make his way down the hallways to the Cuckoo's room. Passing down the halls, he could see that his new look was getting quite a few glances but this wasn't too odd considering how he usually preferred more laid back outfits. Dressed up in a semi-formal outfit that he'd copied from the cover of a heartthrob magazine? Yeah, that would garner attention. He'd gone with that image because he didn't really know how to dress up fancy since the only time he'd worn something other than his usual clothes was for the prom and that was a little too formal for the setting he wanted. It'd taken some borrowing of some clothes from the other guys in the male dorms but eventually he'd managed to put together the outfit that was at least a seventy percent match for what he'd seen on the magazine cover. When you added that to the looks he'd gained from his transformation into the daiyoukai Sesshomaru and you probably had something that looked quite impressive. The guys were probably taking notes as he passed and the ladies were probably wondering if they should approach him later on to get to know him better. He hoped these thoughts passed for both genders because if they didn't, it'd make problems for him and give him stress he **SO** didn't need.

Finally arriving at the door to the Cuckoo's room, he knocked twice and then waited for one of them to open the door. His enhanced hearing could hear movement on the other side of the door but no voices, which was hardly surprising considering the fact that three telepaths were in there. Hearing three sets of feet approach the door, he waited and when the door opened he was treated to a sight that left him temporarily stunned. Standing in front of him wearing backless and strapless dresses that hugged every curve were the three Cuckoo sisters, looking like they should be walking down the red carpet at a movie premiere.

"Well he certainly knows how to flatter a lady, doesn't he?" Celeste asked as she obviously picked up on that last thought.

"He does indeed and I have to say he wouldn't look out of place walking down that red carpet with us either." Mindee replied looking him up and down in a satisfied manner. "Definitely better than what I thought he'd decide on for tonight."

"Definitely," Phoebe stated, walking up to his side and wrapping her right arm around his left. "Shall we go sisters?"

"Indeed we shall." Mindee said wrapping both her arms around his right arm.

With that the three of them proceeded back the way he came with Celeste taking up the rear of the group, though he had a burning feeling that she was doing so just to check out his ass.

_Good guess and __**absolutely**__ right!_ Came the telepathic message from Celeste in a tone that made it clear where her mind was at that moment.

Oh boy.

_**X-Mansion, The Danger Room, Five Minutes Later, Laura's P.O.V**_

She was being reckless.

That was the thought that continued to pop up as she tore through the battle droids that the Danger Room had produced for her training session. Some might consider this to be normal for a teenager but for her it was an abnormality that persisted no matter how many times she tried to force herself back into more precise movements. The precision and efficiency that had been drilled into her by the Facility would remain for a short while but fall apart whenever she let her mind wander to what lay outside the Danger Room itself. Whenever she had a lapse like that, her mind invariably brought up two things that shattered her focus and caused her to be reckless once again in the destruction of the battle droids. That lapse always occurred whenever she thought of the person who should have been with her but wasn't thanks to his 'debt'. Logically she knew that the triplets meant nothing to him beyond the label of classmates or perhaps acquaintances but something within her was… angry at the idea of his spending time with any of them. She had a fairly good estimation of their psychological make-up thanks to her observations of them and, while they had some differences from Emma Frost, they were few in number. They all valued status greatly and saw themselves as being greater than they truly were, or at least greater than anyone else in the mansion. They would either use Xander temporarily to raise their status in the mansion and then throw him away when they'd gotten their fill of him or they'd attempt to permanently tie themselves to him.

Neither was a satisfactory situation for her.

She tried to persuade herself by saying that Xander would never fall for their manipulations or that it didn't matter since he was just a friend to her. It was that statement that she used to force her mind back into the proper state for training but its strength was illusionary, for it failed no matter how many times she used it to lock away the distractions. Was it because she saw him as… more… than a friend? That was something she didn't know the answer to because, if it didn't have to do with being an assassin, she was not told anything about it. She didn't know how to identify half of the new emotions she found herself experiencing and so she often turned away from them or banished them from her mind entirely. Could one of them be… love? She didn't know. When she looked at him or was in his presence alone, the feelings that were stirred up were significantly different from what she'd felt towards her mother. Her feelings past and present for her mother were strong but were of a more…paternal nature. The feelings that Xander inspired in her were a wonderful yet stronger kind and they felt so… warm.

It was an odd sensation but not a displeasing one.

In any case, she would be unable to come to a clear understanding of how she felt until she could identify the emotions that were fluttering about her person. She knew from her training at the Facility that entering into a situation without fully understanding the properties involved would almost certainly led to failure. So, until she truly understood what it was that she was feeling, she would not act upon what she felt no matter how strongly it pulsed within her.

Coming to a stop as the last the last battle droid dropped to the ground, she was about to use the Danger Room's vocal interface to restart the training session when the doors to the Room opened. Turning to see who it was she was somewhat surprised to see that it was Buffy Summers, clad in an X-Man uniform, walking towards her. She had not spent much time with the friend of Xander, aside from the few times that she'd observed the training sessions the two had together in order to help the blonde master her powers. The only facts she truly knew about the young woman were what she could observe from a weapon's point of view. She could see signs of training in the blonde's movements but much of what she could do was instinctual rather than conscious thought. Her movements were rough but they did possess skill, as well as a level of grace that would make her a difficult opponent to face. However she wasn't concerned about being beat by the blonde because, for all the positive movements that the young woman had, Buffy Summers lacked discipline and focus. She supposed that this came from the former Slayer's desire to be normal that Xander told her about once. He'd explained that ever since she'd been 'Called' as a Slayer, his friend had wanted nothing more than to return to the person she had been beforehand. He went on to say that he didn't think that it was necessarily the fact that she was the Slayer that was the source of this desire but rather the fact that Buffy hadn't been given a choice in the matter. Whatever the reason, the conflict between what the blonde wanted and what was had hindered her training.

Whether or not her development would be hindered from now until the end of her life would depend on whether she accepted her new form or merely replaced Slayer with mutant in her struggle to return to her 'normal life'.

"Well… this is quite the mess." Buffy said, looking around at the shattered remains of the battle droids. "How much does it cost to replace one of these anyways?"

"I do not know," she replied, not truly having an exact figure for the cost of one of the Danger Room's battle droids.

"Huh. Mind if I join you?" Summers asked after raising her green eyes from the debris of destroyed droids. "There's not much on TV and Bones is still dragging his feet on that image inducking thing that's suppose to make me look normal to everyone else."

_Is she really that stupid or are the mistakes regarding names done on purpose?_ She thought before asking, "Do you have sufficient control over your abilities to last? I train at a fairly high level."

"Why don't you let me worry about myself, 'kay?" Buffy asked, looking confident in her ability to fight. "I might not be the Slayer anymore but I've still got it where it counts."

She wasn't sure what 'it' was but she resumed that the blonde was referring to skill. Therefore with a nod she turned her attention back to the Danger Room's vocal interface.

"Restart training session Logan 08203. Level 3 difficulty." She called out, knowing that the system would hear her. "Begin!"

The doors that were spread out along the ceiling, walls and floor of the Danger Room opened, admitting new, fully-functional battle droids. They wielded a variety of weapons ranging from close quarters blades to long-range automatic weaponry but, thankfully, none of it was lethal. Sure, if someone activated a training session that was higher than they could handle they would get banged up pretty badly but safety protocols would terminate the program if the people inside of the room showed signs of being seriously hurt. True, this program was designed with Weapon X's healing factor in mind as well as his black ops training but she would be sure to keep an eye on Buffy and would terminate the session if it looked like the former Slayer was having trouble.

With that thought the droids were upon her and all she had time left to do was pop her claws and choose which of the metal constructs she needed to dispose of first.

With the battle joined she did her best to sneak a peek at her unanticipated training partner every once and a while but it looked like she needn't have been so worried. While there were signs that she still couldn't use her powers at will, she was still capable of compensating sufficiently that none of the droids were beyond her ability to handle. With that in mind she put more of her mind towards her own foes and defeating them as efficiently as possible without being injured in the process.

"So… what do you think of Xander?" Buffy asked as the sound of metal under stress reached her ears.

This caused a pause in her movements but only for a moment before she dispatched the droid that had closed to within striking distance. "He is an… adequate fighter." She replied as she extended one of her foot claws to decapitate two droids with a single roundhouse kick, "However he relies too much on the power he's been given as Sesshomaru."

"Yeah but it's like a guy with a new toy," Buffy said as she managed to willfully turn her fingers into razor sharp metal cables in order to slice through the droid weapons. "They try it out once and then ignore any other way of solving a problem."

"Indeed." She said not sure how to respond to such a statement.

"Still I wasn't talking about how good a fighter he was." Buffy said as her shapeshifting of her fingers proved most efficient in dispatching droids, "I was asking what you thought of him as a person."

Was Buffy attempting to ascertain if there were any sort of romantic intentions in her? It would certainly be in keeping with what she knew of the young woman and what Xander had told her of his past relationships with women. The now-daiyoukai young man had not been too forthcoming with the details of his past exploits in the area of love but her ability to analyze someone psychologically helped fill in the details. His past experiences entering into a romantic relationship with women had most likely always ended in a negative light. Either they left him for someone else or they found out there was a certain quality about him they didn't like. That was her assessment of the situation, anyway. She also knew from Xander that his friends were somewhat protective of him and often chose on their own what was best for him. With those two factors in place, her theory as to the source of Summers' question was sound.

This did not make it any easier to answer the blonde's question.

"He is… insightful. I find him to be… kind towards people," she said trying to sum up how she viewed Xander Harris while also choosing her words carefully. "I am glad I met him in New York City."

"Really." Buffy stated while using superhuman strength to damage a droid's internal workings.

Even for one who was just barely beginning to understand what it meant to be a normal human teenage girl, she knew enough to be suspicious of the tone in which the woman spoke.

Buffy Summers was up to something.

_**Emerging From the Forest to the Rear of the X-Mansion, Ten Minutes Later, Chieko's P.O.V**_

"Ahhhhh! Nothing like a good run through the wild to get the old juices flowing!" Chieko exclaimed as she left the untamed forest for the maintained lawn of the Xavier estate.

Don't get her wrong, she was without a doubt a girl of the modern age and all that entailed but at times she just had to let her inu youkai blood out to play. She knew her mother was the same, although the older hanyou did her best to not let people know when she chose to cut loose so as to not let the pureblood among the youkai use it against her somehow. Pausing for a moment both in walking as well as in thought, she wondered if Xander had yet felt the urge to let his inner animal out. Indeed, she even wondered how he'd managed to suppress it for as long as he had. As far as she knew, he hadn't exhibited too much of the usual inu daiyoukai behavior except during battle or when he was sufficiently provoked. Was he suppressing his inner nature? Possible, considering how he'd lived most of his life as a human up until his rebirth in New York City. It wouldn't be completely unfeasible for the former human to reject or at least closely watch over his more primitive impulses in the hopes that they didn't cause him to change too much from what he considered his true self. She'd have to have a word with him about that because, while she could see his point of view, he had to face the fact that he was no longer human but rather a genuine inu daiyoukai. If he didn't face the truth, it was only a matter of time before he made a mistake or got a big enough surprise about himself that he wound up in trouble.

Looking up as she heard the whirring noises of the O.N.E Sentinel nearest to her turning its head to look at her, she had to wonder just who they thought they were fooling.

While she might not have been a resident at the mansion for very long, she'd heard all the stories about how ineffective the O.N.E forces were when it came to doing their duty. Apocalypse, Stryker's people and who knew how many other threats that just hadn't been as loud or memorable as those mentioned. Not once had the Sentinels or the O.N.E officers proven themselves to be capable of keeping the few mutant ningen safe from those that would do them harm. She did not fear them for, while made of steel and possessing weapons as formidable as most natural youkai powers, they would easily fall before her superior skill and power. That and the fact that her mother had developed training scenarios that all warriors under her command were expected to master the moment a report on them had reached her desk. Lady Tsukiko had known that should the existence of youkai become public knowledge, it would be the knee jerk reaction of most governments to use a response that had proven somewhat effective against beings with superhuman abilities. As such, their deep cover operatives made sure that they were kept up to date with any new developments in overall design or system upgrades. A couple of months prior to the start of the search for Xander, she'd participated in the most recent version of the Sentinel countermeasure class and gotten top marks as usual.

Since then she'd managed to figure out how to reduce these things to trash inside of ten moves from start to finish.

It was about then that she noticed Noriko, aka Surge, and Julian, aka Hellion, arguing in the courtyard of the mansion grounds about something teenage in nature. A more serious case of UST she'd never seen before in her entire life and, considering how old she was, that was saying something impressive indeed. Oh, they bitched at each other and did just about everything they could do get the other one pissed but the nose knew, as it was said, and she could smell the interest they had in one another. With a smile on her face she found a spot to sit down and watched the drama unfold before her with her sensitive ears allowing her to pick up their words now that she focused on the duo.

From what she could make out of their conversation, it sounded like Julian was jealous about how Sesshomaru had managed to show him up but tried to cover that up by making it sound like they shouldn't trust him. Predictably, though, the young fool couldn't come up with anything more substantial than gut feelings and the somewhat extreme methods the inu daiyoukai used. Nori saw the truth, though, showing that the girl had at least some experience dealing with guys and the bullshit they sometimes tossed around when confronted with a serious threat to their social power base. She confronted him on his obvious jealousy and then he made the poor move of accusing the blue haired girl of crushing on the future Lord of the Western Lands. This, strictly speaking, wasn't entirely inaccurate since she had picked up some arousal from the leader of the New X-Men whenever Xander was around but, at best, it was likely just mild interest or daydream material. Of course then Noriko fired back at Hellion that she was dating David Alleyne and, even if she did fancy Sesshomaru, it didn't change the fact that the daiyoukai had saved a helluva lot more people than Julian had. Things pretty much went downhill from there with the two tossing shit at each other, some of it being true while other bits were obviously events that were blown out of proportion.

She wondered how long it'd be before they started making out like teenagers in heat.

Should be fun to watch.

_**X-Mansion, Cafeteria, Thirteen Minutes Later, Xander's P.O.V**_

_So far, so good!_ Xander thought as he watched the triplets enjoy their meal, _Looks like this just might end the way I want it to._

_Don't count on it, Sesshomaru-sama. _Celeste beamed into his head while she chewed the latest bite of her meal. _It's a rare thing for anyone of the guys around here to go this far on a date. For those cavemen, going the extra mile means paying for the meal no matter how expensive it turned out to be. None of them would even thing of cooking the meal themselves, much less manage something this good. This is definitely worth repeating!_

_You're forgetting one thing, Celeste._ He thought back at her since it was less of a bother than speaking. _The only reason I did this is because I owed you three a debt for running telepathic interference so I could make a call to Giles. Now, I don't know about you but I figure this dinner date pretty well covers the debt._

"You think **this** covers the debt, Xander?" asks Mindee out loud in a tone that did not inspire the warm fuzzies in him. "Considering it was thanks to our help that you were not only able to find out the entire history around your new form but also help Buffy, I think your debt is a little more than one well-prepared dinner."

"If you'll remember correctly, our little diversion plan didn't make it past Miss Frost. I'd say that you're lucky that I even call this a debt to begin with considering the fact that it didn't pan out." He argued as gently and as civilly as possible since offending them wouldn't be right.

"Didn't it pan out? Who's to say she didn't know what you were up to from the beginning and volunteered to help out?" Phoebe asked rhetorically after taking a sip to drink. "The fact of the matter is that you managed to get to Sunnydale, under the radar of the O.N.E, and get what you wanted with our help as well as Miss Frost's. I'd say you have at least five more dates like this before you can call the debt paid."

He was about to protest further when suddenly images appeared in his mind that stopped him in his tracks and caused his teenage hormones to shine through like a searchlight. He saw images of the Cuckoos on the beach in bikinis frolicking in the waves or tanning themselves. Then those images changed to what were obviously scenes of the Cuckoos preparing for tonight's date with one such image showing Mindee and Celeste in their underwear. However it was the next set of images that really threatened to cause the blue screen of death. They were made up of images of the three girls, potentially naked, with only strategically placed bed sheets or pillows leaving the best parts to his imagination.

_Think about it, Xander._ They all thought at him at the same time. _You could see things like that and more if you wanted and it wouldn't be restricted to just some mental pictures like this. After all, we all agree that you're probably the first boy in this school who is good enough for us both in rank as well as in body. Together we could be something great indeed and have a blast at the same time. So, care to live a dream that few men have ever been blessed with?_

It only took him a second to reach a decision but it was the longest second of his life where his lust and his fantasies warred with his better nature for dominance over his mind.

"I appreciate the offer, ladies, really, I do, but I'd like to think I have more self-control than that," he said as honestly yet as gently as he could. "Don't get me wrong, you're complete hotties, but I'd think you'd want a guy with a bit more substance than a guy whose lusting after your bodies. Besides which, I think you'll find I'm distinctly middle class in my tastes, which means I'll just clash with your high class ones."

There. He made it clear that it'd take more than flashing him some skin and some scantily-clad pictures of themselves to get him to become their trophy husband. He was not some teenager who'd fall at their feet and obey them just on the promises of sexual or lust filled favors. Well… he was a teenager, but he'd seen enough during his time in Sunnydale and at the X-Mansion to mature him faster mentally than most guys his age. Therefore he was more in control of his emotions and reactions since it took some impressive control to keep from totally freaking when confronted with something that could rip your arms off before beating you to death with them. Compared to that resisting the advances of three scorching hot ladies, even triplets, was definitely within his reach.

"Well, sisters? What do you have to say about that?" Celeste asked, looking at her sisters with an unreadable look.

"I don't see how we can respond in any other way given how he's acting." Mindee replied with a similar look on her face as her sister.

He was not liking the latest turn this encounter was taking, especially since one of the major ways he could interpret their words was that they were angry with him. Three telepaths and they were potentially angry with him. Not good!

"He's a keeper!" they declared at the same time with victorious smiles on their faces.

…What the hell?

"It's not really that hard of a concept to grasp, Xander," Celeste explained as she got up from her chair and walked towards him. "My sisters and I are sought after commodities here at the school, not only because we're beautiful and identical but also because we have some pull with Miss Frost. Because of that, just about every guy in the school asks us out for one of those reasons but never because of who we are on the inside."

"All they see are three 'hot babes' that can make their perverted fantasies come true or get some favors from since we know the headmistress," continued Mindee as she got out of her chair as well. "Do you have any idea how angry we get when every guy who asks one of us out is just using us for one thing or another?"

"Now, we'll admit that when we first came up with the idea for this dinner date, it was just for laughs and maybe a story to tell to all the other girls in the locker room." Phoebe said as she joined her sisters on either side of him. "However you've just proven that you're not like the other guys around here. You're not a slave to your emotions or your hormones. A definite step up from the others we've dated. So we've decided that the potential here needs to be explored a lot further."

With that Celeste plunked herself down in his lap and squirmed a bit in her 'seat', causing a knee-jerk reaction below his waist that he was at the moment powerless to prevent.

"Much further indeed," stated Celeste, Phoebe and Mindee as one.

This could not end well, not if the Harris clan luck had anything to say about it.

_**Just Outside the Danger Room, Five Minutes Later, Laura's P.O.V**_

The training had gone well… for the most part.

Buffy Summers had proven that, despite her less than complete mastery of her powers, she was still a formidable fighter and capable of keeping up with her during the training session up to level four difficulty. Considering that she could go as far as level six before it became too much for even her to handle, that was commendable indeed. Perhaps as a… favor to Xander, she could work with Buffy to increase her overall efficiency and skill in battle so that the blonde could reach level six as well. She knew her… friend cared about the former Slayer and that it would be a heavy psychological blow to his mind if she were to die. If she could somehow keep that from happening, she would do so. She would do it for him. For the young man who she still was unclear how she felt about.

"Whew! You sure like to train hard!" Buffy exclaimed as she took off the sweat-drenched top of the X-Man training uniform she'd worn, leaving her upper body clad only in a sports bra. "I don't think I've been this exhausted since I had to clear that nest of Fyarl demons four months ago."

"Are Fyarl demons strong?" she asked, not recalling many things from Xander's stories about them.

"Oh, they're strong but not too bright. They're essentially the dumb muscle of the demon crowd." Summers replied offhand in a way that implied that she wasn't worried about that breed of demon.

If it did not concern the ex-Slayer then it would not be of much concern for her either. With her training and the mutant powers she possessed, it was doubtful that the Fyarl would present her with much of a challenge. While it was true that, in sufficient numbers and with a true tactician directing them, brawn could be deadly to her, by itself it would merely be an obstacle for her. She was about to inquire further about the various breeds of demon for her own memory when a scent passed by her nose, causing her to stop in her tracks and ignore Buffy Summers' talking. She wasn't sure what it was about the scent that caused her guard to snap firmly into place but she did know that until the source was identified, she wouldn't be lowering her guard anytime soon. Taking a few steps away, she tried to determine the source of the scent or at least get a general direction for where she could find the source. However, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't determine a definite direction for the source. It was almost as if… almost as if it was coming from all around her.

"Laura? What's up?" Buffy asked, sounding like she'd finally caught onto the fact that something wasn't quite right.

"Something's not right. Something smells wrong." she replied, no longer trying to ascertain the source of the smell but rather identify what it was in the first place.

This seemed to cause the blonde to raise her own guard, if only a little, but that was better than the more laid back stance of before. With luck it would give the girl a few inches of advantage to employ in evading or thwarting whatever was about to happen. She was about to advise that they seek out one of the more senior X-Men and alert them to the trouble when, all at once, flames shot out of thin air, filling the hallways as they came forth. There was no time to look for a way to escape, no way to think of a way to protect herself from the flames, the most she could do was throw herself at Buffy and shield the blonde with her own body. With a little bit of luck the fire would disperse before the last of her flesh was burned away and then her healing factor could begin to repair the damage. That plus whatever defense the former resident of Sunnydale's powers came up with should ensure that they both survive with a minimum of damage.

As the pain of the flames licking at her flesh set in, she did her best to compartmentalize it and block it out just as she had been trained to do. It was only because of this that she was able to perceive Buffy's body taking on a more liquid and cold composition as it lost solidity. A part of her wondered for a moment at the reason for turning into something vulnerable to fire but then the reason for the change revealed itself. Like Mercury, it seemed that Buffy's body had turned itself into liquid metal and then, with surprising speed, wrapped itself around her body before hardening into a sort of armor. It rendered her immobile but she could no longer feel the flames and with them gone her body began to knit itself back together.

"Don't. Move," came Buffy's voice from an area of the metal near her ear. "This. Isn't. As. Easy. As. It. Looks."

That was certainly a possibility, given how hard it must have been to control her powers and make them act in this manner. Based on what she'd seen during the training sessions Summers had with Dr. McCoy, the girl's powers seemed to only act in defense of their possessor rather than anyone else. They would protect Buffy Summers through either defense or offense but they would not react if someone else was in danger. For her to force her body to protect someone else as well as herself must be taxing for Buffy and it was unlikely that it would last for very long. Sooner or later the strength that the former Slayer was using to bend her powers to her will would exhaust itself and her living metal protecting would withdraw back to what it considered its natural state. As such she began to make plans for either of the two most likely outcomes: either the armor would withdraw exposing her to the flames once more or the fire would recede beforehand, leaving her unharmed.

It turned out to be the latter, thankfully, as she felt the heat begin to vanish.

Once she could feel it no more, the metal surrounding her body began to soften and then became as liquid before, receding to the right of her body. Opening her eyes, she looked around and found that they were no longer at the X-Mansion but rather some desolate place with gothic architecture. New scents were all around her and she didn't recognize any of them, save a few faint ones carried a moderate distance on the wind. Looking over to where Buffy had finally reformed her body, she was mildly intrigued by the fact that the girl hadn't reformed inside of her clothes like Cessily could. Instead the blonde was completely naked and that fact was soon driven home to the blonde when a strong wind blew over the two of them.

"Well, fuck! Not only am I naked but also in some sort of demon dimension!" exclaimed Buffy as she began looking about for her clothes, only to find them not there.

Apparently only things that were in physical contact with living things managed to survive the transition to this 'demon dimension'.

"SHIT! That does it! When I find out who took us here, I'm going to rip him into wet meaty chunks!" Buffy growled as she began to look around for something to clad herself in.

While she didn't quite have the problem with nudity, given some of the missions the Facility had sent her on and the different ways she had sought funds prior to encountering Kidden, she could understand how normal teenagers could be uncomfortable. Looking about, she area she spotted what looked like the remains of a crimson banner or flag and immediately tore it down. With her claws she made a few quick slices until she had a passable improvised skirt and halter top created, which she hoped would be satisfactory for Buffy.

"Here." She said, passing the two lengths of cloth to the Californian girl.

"Ew!" Buffy said as she took the dirty fabric, "Still it's either this or walk around naked." She sighed and wrapped the wider length around her waist, covering everything from her knees to her waist, while the smaller, thinner length covered her breasts as well as secured them. Buffy tested the positioning of the fabric to see if it would impede her movements any, it didn't take long for her to find just the right way to wear her new 'outfit'.

"Let's go and find the others," Summers said as she began to look about a bit before choosing a direction leading them upwards.

"Yer not goin' anywhere. Either of ya!" came a growly voice from an area she had thought clear of danger moments ago.

Turning towards the voice what would deny both her and Summers their chosen path, she found creatures and beings she could not identify save in their collective intent. Harm and, if the two of them were fortunate, capture rather than death.

"We'll see about that, tubbo!" Buffy said as she dropped into a fighter's stance. "Let's see if you can back up those words."

While not one for words, she was fairly certain when she popped the claws both in her fists as well as in her feet, their enemies understood what her stance was on the matter.

"Fine. Have it yer way, ladies," said the overweight demon. "You know the boss' orders. Get 'em!"

_**Back in Earth Realm, In Front of the Fire That Engulfed the X-Mansion, Same Time**_

_**Chieko's P.O.V**_

"You're wasting your time, Keller." Chieko said as she watched the young man tried once more to use his telekinetic powers to force his way past the flames. "These aren't ordinary flames and you won't get through them on brute force alone. There's magic inside these flames. Demon magic."

"Demon magic?" Surge asked from her spot not too far away from the flames.

"Yes. Powerful demon magic to boot," she replied, using her hanyou senses to discern the nature of what crackled in front of her. "I don't think even my mother could bust through these flames. It's not simply a barrier… I think the mansion's been pulled into another dimension."

"Another dimension?" Hellion asked with a typical lack of knowledge when it came to the supernatural.

"Just a guess. Never seen one of these myself but it matches what my tutor's said about dimensional displacement by magic." She replied growling as her senses failed to reveal more.

"Those tutors say anything about how to get things back to normal?" Nori asked as a group of O.N.E troopers and Cyclops began to approach them.

"Not with what we got here. As far as I know, I'm the most mystically informed person within fifty miles of here so I wouldn't get my hopes up about a quick fix." She replied as she turned **reluctantly** to face the ningen who probably thought they could fix things, "This is going to take calling out for heavy hitting help."

"That won't be necessary, Ms. Chieko." Said Colonel Reyes as he and his group stopped right in front of her, "This is official O.N.E business now and we'll handle it."

"Like you handled Apocalypse's little visit? Like you handled Stryker's people?" she asked bitingly and with contempt as her confidence, or lack thereof, in O.N.E was made clear. "You'll excuse me if I don't hold my breath waiting for you to **fix** things."

Reyes looked angry but at the same time she could tell that he couldn't deny her words because they were fact. However it was also clear that he wasn't about to just stand around and do nothing. It was also a fact that Cyclops intended to back the O.N.E commander, no doubt in an effort at maintaining good relations with the organization. She'd heard the tale before with her mother and how she let a number of things slide with human or youkai groups in order to preserve amicable relationships with them. In a world where humans were becoming more and more dangerous while elemental beings like youkai found their places of power growing smaller by the day, one did what one had to in order to preserve what they cared about. This didn't mean she liked it when her mother acted all nice to those assholes or did something to appease them when they threatened her oh-so covertly. She wasn't like those pureblooded fools who thought that the few remaining youkai tribes should begin amassing weapons and warriors to take the battle to the ningens. She knew that their time for making the humans cower in fear of them or holding any great power over the lands of the world had long since passed.

The most they could hope for now was peaceful co-existence.

"Despite O.N.E's past mistakes, Chieko, the mansion is still X-Men property and the children are our responsibility." Cyclops stated firmly, in the hopes that his statement would not be challenged. "We'll handle things."

"Not without me, you won't." she said, deciding if she couldn't have complete control of things, she'd settle for partial. "Xander is in there as well and he is of my clan. More than that, he is considered royalty among my people and, as a representative of his family, I **insist** on having a say in his safe recovery. Understood?"

Both men looked at her like they wanted to refuse her gently but when they saw her amber eyes, she knew they could see that it would not be worth the trouble it'd start trying to push her to the side.

"Very well. Come with us to the command center so we can start trying to figure out a way past this fire." Cyclops said before he turned to Nori and Julian, "As for you two, I won't tell you to leave the area but don't try breaking through the barrier again. If this is something magical like Chieko says then there's no telling what might happen if you hit it too many times. Just keep an eye on it and let us know if something happens."

"Sure." Julian said in response.

"Gotcha." Nori said in the same tone that Hellion had just used.

With that the adults, both of O.N.E as well as X-Men, turned and headed to what she presumed would be the main C&C area for O.N.E operations. She followed a few steps behind them but, unlike those idiots, she knew that as soon as the duo were sure that they weren't being watched they'd resume trying to find a way to get to their friends using their own abilities. It was a trait that both Noriko and Julian had in spades: they were both stubborn to the point of pigheadedness. She herself was known to be quite bull headed and usually it took a serious smack from her mother to get her to back down. She doubted that it'd take anything less than that to get Surge and Hellion to stop their futile efforts to save their friends.

"Are you coming Chieko?" asked Cyclops from a fair distance away.

"Coming!" she yelled back as she broke into a quick walk for the people who thought they were in charge.

How foolish the young were.

_Still,_ she thought looking back at the magical flames cutting her off from Sesshomaru, aka Xander, _I hope that idiot doesn't do anything stupid in there. He's nowhere near good enough to get himself out of situations like this free and clear._

_**Limbo, Belasco's Castle, Time Unknown, Xander's P.O.V**_

Consciousness wasn't something easily obtained when one has been forcibly had it taken away but sounds of people important to him in trouble helped quite a bit.

That and the smells that caused both his Xander side as well as his Sesshomaru side want to growl in hatred at the sources of the various scents for being so foul.

Opening his eyes, he found himself not where he last remembered himself to be and surrounded by breeds of demon that he could not identify right off the bat. The last thing he remembered he was trying to get the Cuckoo girls to resume their meal but the triplets had been determined to have more fun at his expense, though at least they'd been doing it as a bit of good fun rather than some sort of scheming way like he'd expect from Emma Frost. However, just as they'd been about to try something new involving raiding the fridge for Miss Frost's personal stash of high-priced booze, he'd smelled something that had immediately put him on edge. At once he ran for the kitchen where he'd placed his three swords since he still wasn't able to leave any of them in his room anytime he went anywhere. He'd only gotten as far as picking them up when the flames appeared and they'd been fierce indeed, even as he'd felt the powers of the Tenseiga rise up to protect him, but for some reason he'd felt something was wrong. A memory had flickered by his mind's eye of a similar situation where he'd been overwhelmed by a dangerous force and had been teleported away by the Tenseiga. With the flames battering the barrier put up by the sword, he would have thought that he'd be whisked away again but nothing happened. It had almost felt like something was preventing the sword from taking him out of the danger zone.

He didn't remember much past the point where he'd tried to make his way to the Cuckoos, with the intention of bring them into the protective bubble with him, but after that it was all a blur. Had the protective field been shattered? He didn't know but it was safe to say by the fact that he'd been knocked unconscious that something bad had indeed happened. Waking up now, though, he had a feeling that he'd been hit with some sort of whammy that had bypassed the protective barrier somehow. A feat of some greatness to be sure but one he wouldn't allow to happen again.

As he tried to move to see just how bad the situation was, he discovered that he was thoroughly restrained with chains wrapped to keep him from moving too much. Every limb had at least two separate chains clamped on them while his torso had three, making any serious movement impossible. It was mere luck that he was able to get enough of a good look around that he could see what he needed to see. In front of him he could see two rocky outcroppings that seemed to be holding Mercury and Sooraya while a central column had David if his nose was telling him the truth. Joshua, Laurie, Hope and Bling being manhandled on the ground surrounding the platform he now realized he was on. They didn't look too badly roughed up but amongst demons that could change at any time.

Testing the strength of his restraints, he was discouraged to find out that, even with the superhuman abilities he possessed as an inu daiyoukai, freeing himself was not going to be a picnic. The restraints didn't feel too strong but he seriously doubted that he'd be able to free himself in the blink of an eye. It'd probably be more like a lot of grunting, straining and growling before they'd snap, allowing him to take action.

"This…this is bad." David said with his chains rattling as he looked about, "All I remember…was fire. Like there was an explosion. Cess, did you see—"

"I was asleep and then I heard screaming. The Cuckoos." Explained Cessily, sounding a little wigged at the moment, "Those…those things were putting them inside those helmets…they haven't moved since. I think that's Martha in the other one."

His gaze immediately looked about the range of his sight to find his dates for the evening and was shocked to see things were just as had been described. Completely covering everything from the neck up was a thick metal helmet, leaving only their bodies visible to his eyes. The girls had been quite proud of how dressed up they'd been and he had a feeling that their dresses weren't cheap by any stretch of the imagination. When the trio woke up and found their dresses torn and dirtied up like they were, it'd be open season on demons.

"They knew to take out the telepaths. Nori and Julian aren't here… I take it you guys can't use your powers?" David asked, sounding like he was trying to sort through the info available.

"I think I can still use mine but don't count on me being able to break out of these chains in the blink of an eye, though," he replied trying to figure out a way to shorten his break out time. "It'd take me at least five to ten seconds to bust out of these chains. Either these guys could sense my power or they've encountered daiyoukai before."

"Get us out of here, Xander. You have to get us out of here," Cessily pleaded, sounding increasingly frantic.

"Cessily…" Sooraya began to say before being ruthlessly cut off.

"DON'T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN!" Cessily yelled as she tried to free herself from her Golem assailant, "GET THESE THINGS OFF OF ME, XANDER!"

It shocked him for a moment to hear the redhead coming unglued like this but he was soon able to figure out the reason. Mercury was still trying to recover from her ordeal at the hands of the Facility and, from what he'd heard from the other mansion residents, nightmares were a common thing for her. To once again be held captive must have been bringing back horrible flashbacks for the female New X-Man. Nevertheless, surrounded by the enemy as they were, freaking out would not be a good move for them. They needed a better idea of who they were dealing with as well as a plan of action that would free as many friendly combatants as possible in the first few seconds of battle. In order to accomplish both goals, they needed to stay calm and not take any reckless actions and hat meant he had to knock Cessily out of her nervous breakdown.

"Cessily Kincaid! You will get a hold of yourself **now**." He growled, letting his commanding icy Sesshomaru voice pierce the storm playing havoc with his friend's thoughts. "Losing your head will gain you nothing. If we are to turn this situation to our advantage, we need cool heads and careful planning. Our lives depend on your rational thinking as much your life requires us to keep calm. Focus on the problems at hand and how we can overcome them. Please."

This seemed to have the desired effect as her struggles died down and her breathing sounded like it was evening out nicely. Hopefully he wouldn't need to snap so coldly at her again.

"Oh no…**no**...!" Sooraya gasped from her own prison of stone and the fear he heard in her voice made him look in the direction he was staring.

Standing in front of some sort of energy based tapestry as a demon clad in red who only needed a pitch fork and cloven hooves to look the stereotypical version of the Devil. There was another demon next to that one with a horn coming out of the forehead that looked like a shoe in for membership in the Hell's Angel biker gang. Considering Dust's religious dedication, it wasn't too hard for him to see how she'd put this piece together with their surroundings.

"Shaitan. We are outside of Allah's sight." Sooraya said with despair beginning to trickle into her words, "We are in Hell."

Not looking forward to another round of 'snap at your teammates to get them to pull it together', he instead looked about his immediate area to see if there was any way to turn things to his advantage. He seriously doubted Mr. Satan-wannabe was floating over this way to have a nice, harmless little chat. There were no weapons that within reach or any that could be improvised, save his chains once he broke them. Nearby he saw a sight though that caused his inner daiyoukai to get decidedly angry, though he managed to keep this displeasure from reaching the surface. Not twenty feet away he saw what looked like a cross between a lizard and a stone golem holding his swords with the smoke rising up from the closed fist, indicating that the enchantments on the weapons were doing some damage. Not enough to convince the demon to drop them but most likely enough to cause the brute significant pain if the strained look he saw on that things ugly mug was accurate. Based on what he'd been told by Chieko and what he was feeling, he'd theorize that his inner Sesshomaru was miffed that some low class demon was holding his swords. He'd gotten the distinct impression from his two 'relatives' that the Once and Future Lord of the Western Lands had been a firm believer in lesser demons or youkai knowing their place relative to their superiors. He didn't hold the same beliefs but evidently there was enough of the old daiyoukai in him still that it offended him to have his prized possessions being held by such a lesser breed of demon.

"Where. Is. She?" asked the Satan wannabe as he floated up to the platform where the quartet was restrained.

"…She who?" David asked sounding genuinely clueless about how to answer the question, "Who are you? What do you want with us?"

_Not good. Evil Overlord baddies like this do __**NOT**__ react well when they think their prisoners are playing dumb with them._ He thought as he tried to figure out a way he could free himself quicker than his original estimate.

"You were with her. I can smell her on you, on three of you four." Mr. Devil said as he roughly grasped David by the jaw, "You will tell me where she is. Or you and your friends will suffer."

He knew he had to get the Lord of Hell impersonator to focus his attention on someone other than David because while he didn't know just how much punishment his daiyoukai body could take before dying he figured it'd be a helluva lot more than a baseline human body. He was just about to claim to know of the whereabouts of 'her', whoever the female in question turned out to be, when he noticed a sudden commotion coming from one of the larger streets leading to this sort of town square. Turning to see what the cause was he couldn't help but grin as he saw both Buffy and Laura raising hell among the demons that were no doubt supposed to be escorting them to be prisoners like the rest of them. One demon had tentacles for arms and was trying to maintain a solid grip on a Tarzana clad Buffy with limited success while somehow the creatures had managed to entrap Talon's hands in steel. However it didn't look like the demons would be able to maintain their hold for much longer and once they had freed themselves completely he'd have a workable distraction for his own escape attempt.

"Where is she?" Mr. Satan asked sounding increasingly impatient for an answer, "Where is Illyana Rasputin?"

He searched his memories of the X-Files he'd read from the mansion's computer, trying to see if he could recall anything, but came up blank no matter how hard he tried. Not that this was surprising considering the long history of the senior mansion residents and the number of adventures they'd likely been on. He wouldn't be surprised if it took him a full year to read everything and commit it to memory.

"Illyana Rasputin?" David asked a tone of knowing in his voice.

"He knows, Master," spoke the forehead-horned demon.

_Not good! Considering that I haven't heard of an Illyana Rasputin staying at the mansion and David's tone, I don't think this Lord of Hell look-a-like is going to like the answer that's coming!_ He thought as he began to put into motion the only plan he'd been able to come up with.

It was a long shot but he'd clung to the hope that the acidic poison that his body was capable of putting out to weaken the chains quickly. The neon green poisonous acid spewed forth while doing his best to aim the stuff at the chains holding him. He just hoped that the substance would work quickly enough to free him and that the metal the restraints weren't enchanted or something.

"I'm sorry… Illyana Rasputin is dead." David said, not having a clue to the fate he'd just locked himself into.

"You lie," whispered Mr. Satan with each syllable infused with fury. "YOU LIE!"

Then without any hesitation or deliberation the scarlet skinned demon lord thrust his left hand forward, ripped the African American from his restraints and, judging by the amount of blood, had pierced the former mutant's chest. Then, with only a moment's delay, threw the young man to the ground without the heart that was needed for the youth to stay alive.

David Alleyne was dead. **Murdered**.

And his only hope for revival hinged on one inu daiyoukai reclaiming his swords and using one of them to undo the damage.

"DAVID!" yelled Elixir from where he was being restrained.

"Noooo!" screamed Hope as she was exposed to the death of a friend once more.

"Now…I'll ask again," asked Mr. Satan with the bloody heart in his left hand. "Where is she?"

Time to go to work.

_**The Real World, Inside the O.N.E Command Center, Chieko's P.O.V**_

_Pitiful! This is what happens when the humans throw away the past and depend solely on the future. _Chieko thought as she overheard the 'adults' discussing their current plan for breaching the barrier. _If that stupid church hadn't been so thorough in wiping out the old ways from the lands it touched, there might have been a magic practitioner close by who could help._

It had only been about half an hour since she'd left the edges of the barrier to try and formulate a way to get to those trapped inside but already she was willing to break off to try something on her own. So far all the possibilities that had been and were being explored at the moment were technological ones that, thus far, were either not at hand or needed to be worked out on a blackboard a little more. She'd tried a few times to convince them to give the arcane a try but the military people were clinging to what they knew and Cyclops didn't trust her enough to say more than 'we will consider it'. Morons.

With a growl she turned and made her way towards the exit, deciding that if she wanted her sort-of grandfather back safely, she was going to have to take matters into her own hands.

"Chieko? Where are you going?" Cyclops asked in his usual stiff manner.

"To get some air. Something seriously stinks in here and it's messing with my nose." She replied without looking back as she threw the door open and entered the open air.

She wasn't entirely lying about that but it was their stupidity and arrogance that was stinking up the air and she wanted to be as far from that as possible. Taking out her cell phone, she immediately dialed up the number for her mother and hoped that the Lady of the Western Lands wasn't too busy at the moment. She didn't know what the time difference was and at the moment she didn't care because, for her grandfather's reincarnation, there was no doubt that Lady Tsukiko wouldn't mind the interruption.

"Yes, my daughter?"

Odd. Did her mother's phone have caller I.D or something?

"A situation has arisen at the Xavier Institute, mother," she replied while continuing to put some distance between herself and the members of O.N.E. "Some manner of demonic arcane force has pulled the mansion and its occupants into another dimension. This has manifested itself in this dimension as a dome of hellfire. I require assistance to free Xander."

"I know." Tsukiko stated calmly without any change in tone.

"You do? How?" she asked, wondering how her Mom could have learned of this event so quickly.

"My arcane advisors have felt a disruption of the dimensions over the last week. Only recently did they determine its source. This attack upon the home of the X-Men merely confirms their information," the Lady of the Western Lands replied with nothing to indicate her current mood. "The demon Belasco has regained control of his former realm of Limbo and cast out the mortal woman who had ruled there up until his arrival. Now we believe he searches for something though we know not what that something is."

"No doubt he intends to 'ask' those he's captured where that something is," she stated as she came to the logical conclusion. "Do you know of a way that I can go to limbo to rescue Xander?"

"Rescue? Have faith in your grandfather, Chieko-hime," Tsukiko lightly chastised from her location in Japan. "While he might still lack the skill he once possessed, his power has not diminished since his rebirth. No mere demon lord will be able to slay him. Certainly not one of Belasco's pitiful level," Tsukiko added with a sniff and an arched look that was audible over the phone.

"Maybe but the others trapped in there won't be so lucky to have a mountain of power to fall back on," she pointed out, wanting to do anything rather than just wait for things to return to normal. "Besides, they'll need a way home since I doubt that the spell which took them to Limbo is just going to put everything back once its caster is killed."

"True. Go to the primary extraction point we agreed upon," her mother ordered. "I will send a means by which you can open a portal to Limbo."

"I'll be waiting," she said, glad that she would be able to have some fun soon. "Farewell mother."

"Farewell, daughter." Tsukiko said before hanging up thus ending the call.

Snapping her cell phone closed, she put it back into her pocket before heading for the primary extraction point as instructed. It was basically a clearing in the woods that covered the rear of the Xavier property that had been set up on the off possibility that she or Xander or both of them would need to make a quick getaway. While her mother might have been willing to concede to her reincarnated grandfather's desires for the time being, this did not mean that the Lady of the West would not put precautions in place. After all it had been clear from the little show in Sunnydale that Xander wasn't cut from the same cloth as the X-Men and, while the guy wouldn't enjoy killing, he wasn't afraid of putting someone down for good either. While she didn't know when it'd happen, she knew that inevitably her reincarnated grandfather would do something that clashed with the superhero sensibilities of the mutant ningen. If that happened, one of two things would happen: Xander would either bend to their will and follow their lead or he'd be kicked out of the mansion. If that happened then the reborn Sesshomaru would require a new place to call home and that was something her mother was only too happy to provide. In preparation for that possibility, agents loyal to her mother had placed mystic embarkation points reasonable distance from locations where the daiyoukai might be rejected.

It was there that she would acquire the means to go to Xander's aid.

She was about halfway to the location of the extraction point when the wind shifted and she picked up two scents coming up behind her at a decent rate of speed. She instantly recognized them and sighed as she realized that her hope that Surge and Hellion would stay distracted by the barrier was a false one. For a moment she debated whether or not to allow them to catch up but in the end decided that charging off after Sesshomaru by herself would be a tad reckless of her. Definitely something that her mother would chastise her for before telling her not to follow her grand uncle InuYasha's example. Despite how her grandfather's brother had managed to make a name for himself as a hanyou, it was generally considered amongst her side of the family that was descended from Inutasiho that the crimson-clad inu hanyou was simply a lucky ruffian sorely lacking in manners. The bad blood was no longer there like it once was but the former wielder of Tessaiga was still considered an uncouth brute who wouldn't know strategy if it bit him in the ass. Some might have thought that because her mother was half youkai and she was a quarter youkai that they might be more sympathetic towards that miko-loving half-breed but they'd be mistaken. She and her mother were living examples of how one could be hanyou and still make the most of what they had while InuYasha had been content being a lazy, freeloading, only somewhat skilled at fighting. As far as both she and her mother were concerned, being half or less inu youkai and half human only meant you had to work that much harder to get anywhere in life.

_So I guess those two will make good enough back up for this sort of mission._ She thought as she slowed down a bit so that she could hook up with them faster. _I just hope they don't do anything stupid._

With her speed decreased, it only took the two teenaged mutants a minute to catch up and she could tell that they had the same question on their minds: where was Chieko going?

"Bored trying to break through the barrier already, are ya?" she asked with a smile that was sure to let them know she was glad to see them.

"Well, even Nori can eventually get it through her thick skull that we weren't going to bust through just by ramming ourselves into it," Julian replied, trying to sound like he'd been smart enough to figure that out much earlier than the blue-haired young woman. "So when we saw you running off we figured you might have a better plan and decided to come along and help."

"You were the one that thought dropping a couple of O.N.E Sentinels on it might be a good idea, Keller!" Surge snapped, obviously not in the mood to permit Julian's usual ego-stroking moods.

"HEY! Those things have power cores, right? I thought detonating one or two might weaken it enough for us to break through." Hellion said, doing his best to salvage his reputation.

"Yeah! They do! Thing is if the detonated, they'd incinerate everything in the area, **including** the O.N.E people and anyone who didn't have a power capable of protecting them!" Noriko yelled back without breaking stride or lagging behind. "Sometimes I wonder if you even bother to think before acting!"

Shaking her head and wondering if she'd catch them making out in whatever hell dimension they'd be going into to rescue the others. That'd be real inconvenient since she'd have to protect them until they got their heads screwed on straight. Better to snap them out of it now before they got so tangled up in their own arguments that it'd take a horde of demons stampeding towards them to get the two New X-Men to focus on the task at hand.

"Enough! I do have a way for us to go after the others and rescue them but that's only going to be half the struggle." she said commandingly in order to get their attention. "Odds are whoever did this is powerful and has an army of minions at his command. We need to get in, rescue our friends and then leave. Defeating whoever did this is not a priority."

While she would have certainly liked to take down the villain who made this mess, it would have been far too risky to do so in enemy territory with only a single way back that didn't rely on total victory. First they would get their people out and back to the real world then they would see about teaching the bastard a lesson.

Looking back at the two young mutants, she could see that while they might seek to take on the mastermind behind all, this if an opportunity presented itself they would not do so at the risk of losing their friends.

She just hoped that their priorities stayed that way.

_**Limbo, Buffy's P.O.V**_

_That's it!_ _Time to stop playing around._

She knew that these demons were a little beyond what she was used to dealing with and she knew that she didn't have Giles' big brain to fall back on but one human was already dead and it didn't take a genius to see that the others would follow unless something was done. With a purpose in her soul, it burned with determination and, where the soul went, the body followed as flames bathed her body and that forced the tentacle thing to release her out of sheer reflex. Despite the oddness of becoming a being of living flame, she didn't let her mind settle on the change but rather maintained her determined focus on what needed to be done. A part of her believed that part of the reason why she'd had such trouble controlling her new powers was because she was thinking to hard while doing it. It was like fighting in a way, that the moves were supposed to flow seamlessly into one another and how thinking too much caused one to telegraph their moves making them predictable. However, if one performed the techniques on a more instinctive level until it became as easy to fight as breathing, then and only then did you find out who was the superior warrior. It was with this belief she chose to use her powers and with her focused determination her abilities would be quick to serve her.

Willing her powers to lift herself into the air, she charged the Big Bad head on.

Channeling her spirit into her hands, she let loose jets of flame at the Devil-wannabe only for the attacks to be deflected by some unseen barrier causing them to slam into the ground around him. Landing on the ground, she made strength and power the foremost things in her mind, causing her body to once again reshape itself to meet the demands of her soul. Instead of nearly white-hot flames, her body changed to become metal as hard as it was dark before she unleashed a punch intended to knock the demon off his feet. Before the fist could make contact, though, her foe raised his hand and finally launched an attack of his own, assaulting her with pain while at the same time shaking her focus enough to cause her body to partially revert back to its default form.

A good thing for both her and the males present; a good thing for her since it sort of gave her clothes in the form of metallic looking hot pants and halter top and a good thing for the guys since it prevented them from making any lewd comments that would have required her to beat the crap out of them.

Turning back to the demon lord, she made to get back to her feet to renew the fight when Laura vaulted over her, no longer restrained with all claws out. Hearing the sounds of movement behind her, she turned to find that Xander's potential girlfriend had worked to free the others. Golden Boy was free and already running to the body of his fallen friend while some girl with a name she couldn't remember seemed to faint. Looking to see if anyone else was free, she saw that both the Muslim girl and T-1000's little sister had had some of their stone prison's cut away but, for some reason, weren't moving to join the fight. She supposed both of them were too afraid to fight at the moment but that had to stop if there was to be any chance of all of them getting out of this hellhole in one piece. Deciding to let Laura handle Mr. Horn Guy for the time being, she began to fight her way through the demons standing in between her and the remaining mansion residents.

"Dust! Mercury! Snap out of it!" she yelled only peripherally aware of her arms shifting into nasty looking claws. "You need to break free and fight!"

It looked for a moment that her words had had the desired effect but it was seconds later that she realized that the girls were trying to get out as though they were still human beings. Their minds hadn't caught onto the fact that they could become as untouchable as water or sand if they used their powers.

Hopping up onto the platform they were on, she began to chip away at the stone holding them but, while progress was made, it was clear that the rock before her wasn't normal rock. However without learning more, neither she nor her body to could do more than it already had and so she was resigned to battering the restraints as quickly as she could to get the two New X-Men free. She had no doubt that they were on borrowed time and the sooner all the good guys were freed the better their chances would be.

CHING!

Looking to her left, she watched with a smile as Xander broke free of his bonds with the bits of metal left smoking as though burn through somehow. Seeing him rip off the few remaining pieces of metal that hung from his body, she felt more confident than ever that they'd emerge victorious from this battle. She had only seen him fight a few times in the Danger Room but those few times had enlightened her greatly as to just how powerful her friend had become. With him in this fight they'd come out with a few scrapes at worst.

SHMMMMM!

"LAURAAAAAAA!" yelled Xander and, before she could stop herself, she turned to see what had happened to the dark haired girl. She instantly wished she hadn't.

Instead of something like a bloody body or even a charred body there was nothing but a pile of bones with blades of still shiny metal sticking out.

She didn't need anyone to connect the dots but as she felt the air pick up around her she instantly turned back to Xander as she became seriously worried about how he'd react.

She found she had good cause to be worried because right now Xander was in a state that downright scared her. Glowing red were his eyes and his teeth had gone from being human shaped with little fangs in front to being considerably more pointed. Wind swirled about him but more than that she could…FEEL…the killer intent growing within him and considering that she was usually numb to sensing those sorts of things meant he had to be murderous beyond belief.

In the blink of an eye, though, he vanished from her sight but the sounds of spraying blood and pain let her know where to look next. Turning to her left she couldn't help but gape at a demon who now only had two stumps on either side of his body instead of arms. No more than eight feet away was Xander, who was sliding the last of his three swords beneath his golden belt with all the casualness of a man about to go out on a walk rather than into battle. Not once did he change his pace or draw one of his three swords but, as she saw the demons part before him like the Red Sea in that old Heston movie, she understood why. The deadly atmosphere he was putting out, that overwhelming killer intent, was causing the demonic creatures to back away in fear even while in the presence of their master Mr. Devil-wannabe. No small feat considering most Big Bads used fear and death to keep their minions in line.

"Well, well! It seems I've struck a nerve dispatching that **thing** of science," Devil-wannabe said with mocking amusement. "Not at all what I would expect from a daiyoukai."

"Her. Name. Was. **Laura,**" Xander bit out at a temperature best reserved for supercooled liquid helium.

"It had a name? I suppose that makes sense," Mr. Devil stated with mock casualness. "After all, one must name pets in order to tell them apart. Or perhaps she was just your whore. I hear you actually spawned with a human once before. Decided to add another mutt to the family are you?"

The metaphorical line? He just danced all over it.

This was proven by her friend disappearing into nothingness before reappearing in front of Mr. Devil with one of his swords drawn and looking to cleave the demon in two. This actually seemed to surprise the demon for a moment before emerald energy, magic, began to rise up from the crimson skin with the intent to strike down the dog youkai.

The idiot shouldn't have hesitated even for a moment.

The reason for that became clear when before the deadly energy could touch him, Xander vanished once more only to appear behind his foe. It was only due to what had to be an instinctual reaction on the part of Mr. Devil that the fight didn't end right there with one demon lord becoming two. The Big Bad reappeared up in the air about thirty feet away but didn't have much time to do much of anything before Xander was right up there with him. Again and again the demon boss tried to put enough distance between himself and the snow-haired daiyoukai but each time the awesome speed of her best guy friend eliminated the gap in the blink of an eye. It wasn't until the evil guy let out a blast in every direction that the pattern was broken but it was clear this was just a temporary respite.

_Better get the rest of the home team free quick,_ she thought as she turned back to chipping away at the stone restraints on Dust and Mercury. _Knowing Xander's luck, he's going to need back up sooner rather than later. _


	12. A Fury Filled Fang Fight

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material contained herein. They are the rightful property of their creators and associated companies. I make no profit off of this whatsoever. I write because it's fun and because there are people who enjoy reading my work.

_**Limbo, Xander's P.O.V**_

_He killed Laura._ Xander thought in the back of his mind as the bulk of his focus was on killing his foe. _THAT BASTARD KILLED LAURA!_

Some would say that he shouldn't be so angry, that it would only make him reckless and foolish.

However there only two things were resonating within him at the moment; the first was that Laura, the young woman he thought could very well upgrade from the title of friend, was dead at this demon's hand. The second was that the Tenseiga couldn't possibly revive someone from death if they'd been reduced to nothing but a pile of bones. Tsukiko hadn't been all that detailed about where the swords limits were beyond the fact that it couldn't revive someone from death more than once. While he wanted to believe that all he had to do was unsheathe the sword and swing it at Claw Girl's remains to bring her back, both logic as well as reason told him it would be useless. With these two things burning brightly in his mind, all that was left to him right now was vengeance and he would have it even if he had to bring this entire dimension down brick by brick.

"ENOUGH!" roared the demon boss and all at once spears of stone erupted from the ground with emerald energy licking at the edges.

"Pathetic," he said as he went with his instincts and unleashed a thread of energy from his right hand before spinning around, shredding everything that came within a ten feet radius of him.

As fast as the stone spears reformed and shot towards him, his youki whip was just that much faster as it reduced them to shattered fragments. Eventually, though, the demon Lord got the hint that spears weren't going to do anything but make a mess and that was when he decided to be the one to up the ante this time. With speed and efficiency he drew the Tetsusaiga, lifted it over his head and let the energy in the air wrap itself around the blade before showing the fool why he should begin praying.

"Kaze no Kizu."

With more power than it had exhibited in the mortal world, a torrent of gold and white energy burst towards its target. Yet as fast as the attack was, teleportation was even quicker as Satan's stringy sibling vanished, causing the hundreds of demons that'd gathered to be hit instead. In an instant they were wiped out and the unspent energy expanded out in all directions, coming just shy of where Buffy and the others were watching the spectacle. This fact caused him to pause for a moment as his rational mind seized the opportunity to make him aware that he had to be more careful about using attacks like those. The others were still more or less immobilized, even though the elf-eared former Slayer was making progress in freeing them and all it would take would be one wrong move on his part to kill them with his own attack.

He couldn't let that happen.

"Do you really think you have time to look away, youkai?" came Mr. Bad's voice, causing him to turn swiftly in the sound's direction.

It wasn't fast enough, though, to allow him to evade the blast of energy that hit him dead center, sending him to the ground at an impressive velocity. Letting out a brief pulse of his own energy, he dispersed the emerald attack and reoriented himself to land on his feet so that he could push off the ground. However, when he touched down, instead of the hard and firm stone he'd been expecting it felt more like he'd landed in a large pit of mud with the momentum his body had causing him to sink almost to his waist. Using what he'd learned about creating mini-energy platforms under his feet to literally walk on air, he tried to extricate himself from the muck. Unfortunately it turned out to be slicker and harder to get out of then one of Frost's meetings with the substance reforming around him in counter movements to his actions. Worried about what might happen if he stayed in one place too long, he tried to teleport just like Chieko had taught him but the process seemed to stall halfway through the power up phase.

"It would appear that the manners of the inu youkai aristocracy have lessened considerably since I was last to the mortal world," Mr. Big Bad said, transitioning from being hopping mad to refined and lordish. "Normally there is at least an exchange of names before a duel begins. Given how you behaved, I will go first. I am **Belasco**! Ruler of Limbo!"

He considered that for a moment and decided that going through pleasantries might buy him some time to get out of the muck he was in and maybe even use his past life to his advantage.

"I am Sesshomaruu. Son of the great inu youkai general Inutaisho," he replied with his Ice Prince voice as he considered trying to overwhelm the muck with a full transformation. "You will release us now or suffer the consequences."

"A bold threat but one you're in no position to make good on, son of an inu youkai general." Belasco said, showing how little knowing the name of his foe had changed his position of arrogance. "My magic will ensure that you cannot move much less attack me and these mortal humans, better than their kin though they may be, are mere nuisances when compared to one who has been made both immortal as well as invulnerable by the Elder Gods."

_Elder Gods? As in the Old Ones Giles always used to go on about?_ He thought with some concern as he knew of only one pseudo-example of such a being and that had been Mayor Snake. _If they've empowered this guy then it might just be a skooch harder to make good on my ambition to reduce him to a pile of bloody bones and torn organs._

"But perhaps you need an example of the power you seek to defy." Belasco stated before a truly horrifying tooth-filled smile came over his face, "Watch and despair."

Then with a crackle and boom of emerald magic something he'd thought he'd never see again appeared floating in mid-air before the demon lord.

Laura.

A Laura who was alive but not entirely coherent at the moment but that didn't matter.

She was alive and that was all that mattered.

"I can do this as many times as I wish. Reduce her to smoking bones for a time then restore her to the very peak of health," Belasco said with cruel satisfaction at the look that was on the daiyoukai's face. "From death, to life and back again. Then when such things no longer amuse me, I can take pleasure in finding out just how far I can push her healing abilities. It will certainly be interesting to find out."

At once his mind showed him images of the suffering that Laura would endure and how such torment could very well obliterate any chance of the former weapon regaining her humanity. An image of his friend becoming like Drusilla or worse flashed through his mind, adding fuel to the fire of determination that was already burning brightly inside of him.

This outcome was… unacceptable.

Reaching deep within himself, he began to gather his power, his strength, using his will to keep it from stalling on him as it had before. He could feel as the changes began to occur in his body as it began to change into something distinctly more canine in nature. However it was not easy as the potent magic being used against him was almost as formidable as his will was and so the change was much slower than it should have been.

"Still defiant, I see. Perhaps if you experienced the pain I can induce yourself, you will see the folly of opposing me." Belasco declared as he gathered energy for an attack.

"NO!" came to female cries before sand and silver knocked the demon lord from his mid-air perch.

For a moment there was a pause in everything, from his own transformation to the spell that restrained him, and he saw who it was who'd come to his rescue.

"You will **NOT** harm him, demon!" declared Sooraya as she floated in the air, half in her sand form while the rest was her normal human form.

"Not if you want to stay healthy," Cessily said in a tone almost as cold as his was when furious.

These were no idle threats or words of bravado. These were **promises**.

_**The Real World, A Clearing a few Minutes Into the Woods Surrounding the Xavier Institute**_

_**Surge's P.O.V**_

"O-kay! So why are we here?" Hellion asked, sounding both clueless and cocky at the same time.

"We're here because this is where I've been preparing a teleportation circle since I've arrived here at the Institute," Chieko replied as she drew symbols in the ring of circles that were at the center of the clearing. "While Mom and I hoped that the rest of you ningen would keep your noses out of youkai business, we had this as a back up plan just in case."

"What do you mean 'you ningen'? What's a ningen?" Julian asked like he didn't have a single brain cell in his head.

"Ningen is Japanese for human, Keller." Noriko replied before the hanyou could.

"Yep, and before you ask, as far as a youkai is concerned, it doesn't matter if you're a mutant or just a 'flatscan', you're all human as far as we're concerned," Chieko said as she finished with the final symbol and stood up. "Now take a couple steps back 'cause this is going to be pretty flashy."

Since she didn't know a thing about magic, she decided to go all the way back to the treeline before stopping because if flashy for hanyou was anything like flashy for mutants, she didn't want to get zapped. Looking back at the person who'd promised a way into Limbo, she was shocked when out of nowhere Chieko sliced open her right hand, allowing the blood to fall onto the final symbol she'd been working on. She was about to ask what the hell was going on when the crimson liquid caused a bright red light to shine from the symbol. It didn't stop there as, one by one, the light began to spread to the remaining symbols and circles until all were lit up. Then, with an effect similar to what she'd seen in that SG-1 sci-fi thing she caught some of the other mansion residents watching, a column of red light shot up high into the sky.

_Is this supposed to get us into Limbo?_ She thought as she began to move closer to the circle of light.

She stopped in her tracks when a twelve year old girl that looked like she was half human and half fox rose up from the ground carrying what appeared to be a mirror. Dressed in an odd mix of modern and ancient Japanese clothes, the little girl walked out of the circle to where Chieko stood waiting.

"Lady Tsukiko sends her regards, Princess Chieko," the fox kid said in accented English. "And the method you requested to travel to the dimension known as Limbo."

"Thank you, Kimi-chan," Chieko said as she took the mirror into her hands. "Tell my mother that I will call her once we have successfully rescued grandfather and his friends from Belasco."

"As you wish, my Princess."

With those words the youkai stepped back into the column of red light before descending into it and out of sight. With the disappearance of their visitor, the crimson light winked out of existence in a snap of displaced air, leaving only a faint smell of something burnt in the air. With all that done, she looked to the object that had been delivered to them and wondered what use a mirror could be. She didn't pretend to be an expert in magic but, after hearing the tales of what Mercury and the others had encountered in Sunnydale, she'd decided on her own to give the seemingly ordinary object a chance.

"So what does that do? Besides help you touch up your make-up, I mean?" Julian asked, openly voicing his skepticism.

"In many forms of magic, mirrors can act as a gateway between one place and the next," Chieko said dismissively as she began to walk back in the direction of the dome of fire where the mansion had once been. "This mirror has been in my family for over four hundred years. We will use it to open a gateway to Limbo. First, though, we have to get back to the pyro dome. C'mon!"

With that the hanyou broke to a run and she followed second later, using her mutant powers to keep up with the dog eared teenager.

"Hey! Wait up!" yelled Keller, who had apparently had taken longer to snap out of the shock of Chieko's sudden departure than she had.

Idiot.

Still, there was one thing bugging her about their current course of action.

"If that mirror's supposed to be able to get us into Limbo, then why're we going back to where the mansion was? Couldn't you have opened it up back there?"

"No, I couldn't have," Chieko replied with some bitterness. "I can pound, cut and tear most demons to pieces but magic is the one thing I completely suck at!"

"But back there you—"

"That was just a basic teleport circle," Chieko explained dismissively. "I learned how to do one properly when steam engines were considered cutting edge. Using a mirror like this to get us into Limbo is a little beyond me unless you want us to get there all fused together like that transporter accident in the first Star Trek film."

While not being a sci-fi fan herself, she'd seen the movie and what'd happened to the science officer when the transporters malfunctioned. That pretty much put an end to any questioning and, internally, had her praying that Chieko wouldn't screw up when the time came to use the mirror.

She didn't want to know what it felt like to survive a botched teleportation.

_**Limbo, To the Side of the Ongoing Battle, Laura's P.O.V**_

"Laura! Laura!" came a voice through the haze of sensations that clouded her mind, "You've got to wake up! The others are in danger!"

The word 'danger' awakened a drive in her that tried to drag the rest of her mind back to conscious world but a part of her was reluctant to leave the soothing haze of unconsciousness. Here nothing could hurt her, nothing could confuse her and nothing could threaten her. However, as she thought of the words 'danger' and 'others', a face appeared in her mind that stilled everything else as though it were frozen in time. Hair as white as snow, eyes of amber that could be gentle as well as ruthless and a smile that could disperse unpleasant feelings within her just by looking at it.

Xander.

With that name her eyes flicked open and she sat up, taking in all her enhanced senses could tell her about her environment. Her hearing told her that a fierce battle was being waged. Her nose told her that both Mercury and Dust were in close proximity to the leader of the hostiles. Her eyes told her that she was in some sort of structure with Prodigy kneeling near her, a look of discomfort on his face as he seemed to have difficulty looking at her. Feeling air blow by where it shouldn't have, she looked down to find that while she had apparently survived the attack, her clothing did not. It must have been no more than a couple minutes since she'd lost consciousness, though, since her healing factor would have made quick work of any injuries. While she personally was not overly concerned with her nudity, it would make interacting with the others more… awkward and hinder them in combat. Looking down at the banner David had draped over her, she found herself doing the same thing Buffy Summers did upon arriving in this dimension. A few swift slashes with her claws accompanied by strategic placement of the fabric so that it would not interfere with her combat style and she was decent enough that Prodigy was able to look at her normally now. She knew not how he was alive as she had witnessed with her own eyes his heart being ripped from his chest but in the end she decided that that issue could wait until later.

"What is the situation?" she asked as she got to her feet and looked around.

She was then able to see Elixir lying on the ground barely conscious at the moment. It became clear that the teenager with the golden skin had used his mutant powers to restore Prodigy before an unacceptable amount of time had passed. At the moment, though, his energy levels were at an all time low, removing him from being any sort of asset in the battle against the enemy.

"Buffy managed to free Cessily and Sooraya and they're trying to stop Belasco but they're not having much luck." David replied showing concern for his comrades.

"And Xander?" she asked, wanting to know the status of their most powerful teammate.

"After Belasco killed you… Xander completely lost it and started attacking nonstop," Prodigy replied, startled a bit into honesty by her tone. "Had the guy on the ropes for a while but then that demon turned the ground under him into some kind of living quicksand. The bastard then brought you back to life and gloated that he'd make Xander watch as he killed you then reviving you over and over again. Belasco was about to hurt Xander when Cessily, Sooraya and Buffy showed up and attacked him."

Taking all of that information in two facts took a surprising amount of importance in her mind. The first was that she had been killed then revived. She had thought that she'd simply been dealt an attack that had rendered her unconscious and destroyed her clothes. When she'd been a weapon of the Facility, death had never really entered her mind as her healing factor had allowed her to come back from virtually any wound. Indeed it had been speculated by Rice that, so long as a sufficient amount of her organic material remained intact, she would always recover. To know that she had indeed died at the hands of Belasco cast a new light on her life… one that she didn't like one bit.

The other fact was how Xander had reacted following her death. If David's reaction could be taken at face value, it sounded like her friend had been driven into a murderous rage and had committed himself to avenging her death. It was as though he… felt something for her that went beyond simple friendship. Even when he'd found Buffy Summers injured inside the Initiative, he had not been so driven to end the lives of those responsible. Perhaps that was because the blonde Slayer was still alive when he found her but it still inspired a warm feeling in her that was oddly… pleasing. It was tempting for a time to pause and examine this sensation further but as the sounds of battle got louder, she pushed such a desire aside as there was a time and a place for such topics.

"Stay here with the others, David."

"WAIT!" Prodigy exclaimed, stopping her in its tracks.

Turning around she raised an eyebrow to prompt him to explain himself.

"I've been trying to figure out a way to take down Belasco that doesn't involve getting ourselves killed in the process," David explained before turning to where the Stepford Cuckoos lay unmoving. "It occurred to me then that there had to be a reason why Belasco chose to neutralize the telepaths. Maybe if we get them free, we'll be able to tip the odds in our favor."

Looking at the triplets whom Xander had been… having dinner with, she didn't want to believe that once freed that they'd be of any real use strategically speaking. However, given the less than promising results from her own claws and the fact that the battle outside showed no signs of abating, she could not deny that a new approach was becoming necessary. If striking at the enemy's body was proving insufficient then perhaps a mental assault would prove to be more successful. If nothing else, it might make it harder for Belasco to perform complex spells.

Moving over to the triplets, she began to examine the helmets that were likely responsible for the inactive state in an effort to find a way to safely remove them. The more she looked though the more it appeared as though they'd been fastened on by magic and that meant the only way to remove them would be for her to cut them off. For a moment a thought entered her mind, a thought centered around 'accidentally' cutting too deeply and killing the triplets, and it did tempt her but her more logical mind washed the idea away. While the idea of ridding her friend of the three threats was tempting, she knew that it had the potential to make trouble for him not to mention her. If the three blonde teenagers died, David would almost certainly report it to the headmaster and headmistress of the Institute upon their return to the normal world. Ms. Frost would pounce on the act and use it to manipulate Scott Summers into expelling her from the Institute as the deaths of Phoebe, Mindee and Celeste Cuckoo would be all the evidence of a threat to the school she'd need. Xander would also… not approve. While she was confident that he would find it hard to believe she would purposefully kill anyone without a practical reason, once he examined the evidence the seeds of doubt would be sown in his mind.

She didn't want that.

Thus, with an objective in mind, she popped a single claw from her right hand and, using what she could recall of the triplets' skull structure, began to cut into the metal. She did this slowly, paying the utmost attention to close the tip of her claw was from Celeste's head in her mind's eye, until, with a final flick of her wrist, the helmet fell to the ground. Consciousness seemed to be returning to the blonde swiftly so she gently lay Celeste down and moved on to Mindee, taking special care not to be impatient despite the sounds of battle reaching her sensitive ears. While her senses indicated that Belasco was having trouble with the unique nature of Cessily and Sooraya's mutant powers, it did not appear as though they were minutes away from victory. Indeed they were deep within enemy territory and it was likely only the demon lord's arrogance that kept the rest of the monsters from joining in on the battle.

If Belasco gave the order for his armies to attack, she estimated they'd last no more than twenty minutes and that was if Xander used his swords full strength every time he attacked.

Her eyes narrowed with impatience as she continued the annoyingly slow cutting of the helmet that neutralized Mindee's mind and thus her strategic value. However for once the conditioning she'd undergone at the Facility proved useful as it kept her desire to reinforce the others from affecting the precision of her work. As the second helmet fell to the ground and she gently lay the second of the three telepathic sisters down, she took solace in the fact that she only needed to perform the task once more before she'd be free to rejoin the battle.

"Hurry! I'm not liking the sound of things out there!" Prodigy declared with concern clear in his voice.

"Done," she said as the last of the helmets fell to the ground. "I will reinforce the others. Brief the triplets on the situation then tell them to wait for my signal before beginning their assault."

With that she slunk away with the intent to get into just the right position to turn the tide of battle in favor of the X-Mansion residents.

_**The Main Courtyard of Belasco's Castle, Buffy's P.O.V**_

"Xander? Any ideas? 'Cause we're getting pasted here!" Buffy said as she dove behind the remains of a wall with her friend.

She'd initially been optimistic of their chances once she'd successfully freed Cessily and Dust from their stone cocoons, believing that a four on one advantage gave them the edge they needed to pound Mr. Bellyassco into the ground.

Now… she wasn't quite as sure as she had been.

"Not many, Buff," Xander replied in a somewhat serious tone with a hint of frost thrown in. "While I know we can hurt him, keeping him hurt is looking to be impossible. His healing factor makes mine look downright normal and his magic can kill one of us in a flash. Probably the only reason we're still breathing is because he's having a hard time finding a spell that can work on our **unique** natures."

That was true.

Dust's sand body, Mercury's liquid metal form and her own adaptive powers seemed to possess a certain resistance to the demon's magic, but it was not something she wanted to rely on. If finding the right spell was anything like finding the right weapon then they had at best ten minutes before they got it right in the stomach. After all, back when she was in Sunnydale, it usually only took her one or two tries before she found the right way to kill whatever thing crawled up out of the ground. True, none of those things could fire off energy blasts or make the ground do whatever it wanted, but Giles always said her ability to improvise was one of her best attributes.

After her charming personality, of course.

"It won't last. We need a plan and we need it now, 'cause I don't want to play Russian Roulette with this guy all day," she said before peeking over the wall that they'd been hiding behind.

Turning back to Xander, she almost saw a sort of spaced out look on his face but his expression snapped back into alertness.

"Xander?" she asked hoping that this wasn't another spell of Bellyassco's.

"I think I might have an hat trick up my sleeve, Buffy, but I need you and the others to get Belasco's attention completely on you guys first." Xander replied, turning to her with a look that added weight to his words.

"Then start getting ready to pull that rabbit, Xan, 'cause you're on in five!" she grinned before leaping over the wall and using her newfound control over her powers to become a being of flame again.

"Forget about me already, horn head!" she quipped as she began to literally fly circles around him while leaving a short trail of fire behind herself. "Well, you know what they say about a woman ignored!"

Thankfully it looked like the fire trail she was leaving behind was obscuring the baddie's eyesight enough for Dust and Cessily to catch a breather. She'd have to clue them into Xander's plan, such as it was, but in such a way that she wouldn't be tipping off the demon boss at the same time. After a minute of thinking and straining, she eventually threw her hands up mentally in defeat before deciding to simply drag them clear of what was probably going to be the blast radius. Xander was, after all, a guy and in situations like this, what was manlier then a big explosion of some kind?

As she dodged a rather large blast of energy from the Big Bad, she spotted Xander stepping out from behind cover with one of his weird swords in hand. Figuring this must mean he was ready to make his move, she immediately willed her body to change into something that would suit the situation and accomplish what she wanted. Turning into a being of green energy that grabbed the two members of the New X-Men in energy nets wasn't what she'd been expecting but she mentally shrugged and lifted them away from Belasco.

Once the three of them were sufficiently far away, she turned around to watch what would happen whether that was the end of the Baddie or the failure of Xander's attack.

She didn't have long to wait.

"SORYUHAAA!" Xander yelled and, in an arc of lightning manifested out of nowhere, taking on the likeness of a dragon, before it surged towards like a tidal wave towards its target.

So shocked by the unexpectedness of the assault, the demon's thought of reacting didn't occur until it was far too late, resulting in the devil wannabe getting hit with the full force of the attack. She had to admit that she was impressed by the light show her friend was putting on because, even though she'd been at the Institute a while, Xan hadn't used his swords during that time for anything but normal sword fighting. When she'd asked him about it, he said that all three swords could be extremely destructive if used offensively and he didn't want to bother Mr. Summers and Ms. Frost by damaging the landscape. Mostly because he figured they'd make him fix everything by hand. By himself.

However it still remained to be seen whether or not it'd be enough to bring down the demon. As the dust, dirt and debris settled down, she lowered both herself and her two passengers to the ground so that all could see the results. It was hard to see anything at first but eventually her eyes saw a sight that made her believe this fight was all but wrapped up. Down on his hands and knees, tears as well as burns all over him, was Bellyassco, breathing hard and not looking nearly as troublesome as before.

"I trust I have made my point, Bellasco." Xander said his voice colder than ice as he strode forward sword still drawn. "I know not where Illyana Rasputin is and you will not get answers from any of us. Return us to our native realm or I will deal the deathblow and find a way home without you."

**CHOOOMMM!**

In both defiance and a reassertion of his place of dominance, the demon lord unleashed an omni-directional blast of energy that knocked everyone back a few meters as well as onto their backs. What was worse was the fact that her body snapped back to its default form upon, hitting the ground and sadly her makeshift clothing hadn't survived her changes. Quickly willing herself into a more stony form, she found out much to her disgust that she hadn't changed quite quickly enough because some of the monsters that'd been waiting on the sidelines were giving her perverted looks.

EEEWWWWW!

"WHO will be dealing the deathblow, youkai **fool?**" Belasco asked rhetorically with his anger plain for all to see.

"I will," came an unknown female voice as a pink teleportation effect heralded the arrival of some new people to the party.

_Looks like we just got some back up!_ She thought getting to her feet.

_**Xander's P.O.V, Ten Minutes Later**_

_It's beginning to look like every time we dig ourselves out of a tight spot, someone has to dump more crap on us!_ He thought as he used the Tetsusaiga to cut two demons in half.

It had felt like he had been given a gift from the heavens when he'd felt the memories of the Dragon Strike technique float to the surface of his mind. He had seen how powerful it was in those memories and hadn't been disappointed when he'd used it against Belasco. However it hadn't been enough as the demon lord had gotten right back up and resumed smacking them around like the powerhouse he truly was. It was unsettling to find something that could trump the new body he'd been given and the powers that came with it. Ever since waking up in that burning building, he'd yet to find a single opponent who could match him, much less back him into a corner. Now, though, he found himself in the unlikeable position of fighting against someone who might very well be able to kill him.

_From powerhouse to lightweight in the blink of an eye!_ He thought as he youki-charged slash with his claws. _Not a feeling I like!_

He'd had a glimpse of hope when more Institute students had arrived with some she-devil but it hadn't lasted when Belasco finally gave the order for his amassed demon army to attack. Now they were swamped on nearly all sides and, while the fang-made-sword in his hand helped ease the pressure every so often, it was limited in how it could be used. It was a tool meant for destroying large numbers of enemy's in a single swing but, with allies scattered amidst the enemies, he couldn't risk using the weapon as anything more than standard melee weapon. Its youki-based attacks he could only use when he was certain that only the demons would be hit by the attack. He'd hate to think that Belasco would have planned it that way but then he did seem to be smarter than the usual big bosses that the Scoobies usually dealt with.

Just as he was about to turn to Buffy to tell her to try and get the people on their side all in one spot, a scent on the wind warned him of something that his daiyoukai mind told him he needed to avoid. Acting on instinct, he grabbed Buffy around her waist and jumped into the air in an effort to evade whatever had set off his inner youkai lord. For a second he counted this as a good thing since one of the larger demons hurled what looked like acidic vomit at where they'd been. It was positively disgusting and reeked something awful but it was also effective as it ate through the stones it touched faster then the green blood of a Xenomorph from Aliens. However his moment of satisfaction didn't last as, out of nowhere, something slammed into him mid-air faster than he could react. Hitting the ground wasn't pleasant but he liked the hand that clamped down around his throat even less since it slammed him back into the ground he'd bounced off of moments before.

"You have hurt me, youkai. You have killed many of my minions. Most of all, though… you've **made me ANGRY!**" Belasco growled as he tightened his grip. "Now **you** will feel **PAIN!**"

Painful energy was sent through his body, causing him considerable pain even after he brought his own energy to bear against the assault. Yet, despite what he was feeling, he did his best to maintain his composure, his **icy** exterior, so as to deny the fiend the pleasure of knowing his efforts were effective. Forcing his right arm to obey his command, he reached up and grabbed one of Belasco's arms before trying to use his corrosive poison to free himself. He could feel the fingers around his throat tightening, no doubt trying to choke him out before he could succeed in burning his way free. He increased his focus, increased his resolve, in order to increase both the amount as well as the potency of the poison but, as he felt his mind began to fade, he worried that he would not free himself in time.

Then, without warning, the fingers around his throat disappeared, allowing good sweet oxygen to enter his lungs with only residual composure keeping him from making a show of breathing. Looking up to see what had happened, he was shocked to see Chieko, Surge and Hellion wading into the throng of demons to clear the space around him. While not opposed to this turn of events, it was something of a surprise to see someone who hadn't been transported to Limbo initially show up.

"Quit staring and start killing, gramps!" Chieko growled as she decapitated one demon while introducing youkai steel to another creature's intestines. "As I'm sure you know, the odds aren't exactly in our favor!"

Shaking off the shock of the three new arrivals, he steeled himself for battle and rose to his feet, determined to render what aid he could to his friends. While the addition of two more potent long range fighters helped in breaking up any large groups, they were still facing an uphill battle. Depending on how many demons had been gathered for their abduction and interrogation, they could be facing hundreds, if not thousands, of enemies. No matter how powerful they were, they wouldn't last long against those numbers and, when Belasco himself was added to the picture, it gave him all the incentive he needed to come up with a quick plan to get them home.

"Chieko! I assume that since you found a way here that you have a way to get back home?" he asked, delivering two quick slashes with the Tetsusaiga to decimate a group of demons.

"Of course I do! I'm not like a certain reincarnated daiyoukai who leaps in head first all the time." Chieko replied before executing a fancy series of moves that cost two demons their arms, legs and heads.

"Then get ready to open up a way home," he said as he noticed all the allies on the battlefield falling back to his location, "I'll create an opening for the voodoo that you do!"

Stepping up the speed and efficiency of each blow he dealt the hordes of Belasco, he did his best to clear as wide an area as possible since he had a feeling that Chieko's magic would require quite a bit of room to work. It was rough work but thankfully Buffy, Hellion and Surge helped keep the area free of demons once he got rid of those demons that had been there. As he continued to slice through demon after demon, he figured he had to hold out for at least another few minutes so the last of the Institute students that had been dragged to Limbo could make it into the clearing he'd created. Hopefully his pseudo-grand daughter would have everything set to go by then because he'd bet even money that they had three and a half minutes before the demon lord of this realm caught on to what they were trying to do.

**SHHOOOMMMM!**

With all the tact of Queen C in full on fashion shred mode, a wave of emerald magic swept across the battlefield, harming everything in its path. Only a last minute horizontal Kaze no Kizu from him managed to take the edge off of the deadly energy so that it only knocked the mansion residents off their feet with light burns on their bodies.

Apparently he'd been a tad optimistic about how long it would take for Belasco to figure out what was going on.

"Leaving so soon, youkai?" Belasco asked with mock politeness. "How…**rude!**"

"Well what else can we do? No food, no drinks and the **entertainment** is barely enough to keep the yawns away," he said, hoping that the baddie enjoyed the sound of his own voice enough to last a minute or two.

"Oh, I do apologize! It's so hard to organize festivities on such short notice." Belasco said, apparently finding the whole verbal banter amusing enough to keep it going, "Surely you'll stick around a while longer. I'm sure I can find something **amusing** for us all to do."

Making a show of thinking about it, he covertly looked at Chieko to try and judge just how long he they had before their ticket out of this hellhole was ready. He could see her working on something on the ground while the others tried to hide what she was doing by blocking her from view. His eyes though were sharp enough that he could still see enough to know that Tsukiko's daughter was working as quickly as she could.

He just hoped that it was quick enough.

"Somehow I don't think your idea of fun and my idea of fun match, Lord Belasco. Besides, as a fellow lord, I'm sure you understand that I have certain **responsibilities** that I must get back to."

"Then I hope you have already sired an heir, Sesshomaru," Belasco declared before energy began to hum all around him no doubt as a build up to an impressive attack.

Before the spell could finish being cast, though, a crimson and black blur flew through the air in front of the ruler of Limbo, leaving three separate lacerations behind. Two of them were parallel to each other and roughly two fingers apart while the last one was, by itself, arcing from hip to shoulder. As the blur slowed down, he couldn't help but be impressed with the sight of Laura dressed up like a female Tarzan. With her claws popped and quite a bit of skin showing, he couldn't remember ever seeing her look quite so alluring. However now was not the time for indulging in his teenage hormones and, while it was great that his friend was there, she may have made a mistake by grabbing Belasco's undivided attention.

"You made a mistake bringing me back to life," she said with deadly killer intent.

"Abomination! How many times must I kill you? When will you learn that you are nothing but a mote of dust compared to me?" Belasco bit out as the hellfire that seemed to be his blood sealed and then healed the wounds he'd suffered.

"I've learned enough," she replied before pointing to a building behind the crimson cape-clad creep.

Walking out of the building with their dresses dirty and torn as well as having a bad case of helmet hair, were the Stepford Cuckoos.

They did not look pleased **at ALL**.

"Take him," was all Laura said and, as the eyes of the three blondes lit up with an eerie blue glow, he had a pretty good idea what was about to happen.

"Your helmets…we didn't like them…or how you ruined our date with Xander," they said as one chilling voice of anger. "Now **SUFFER**!" The collective telepathic power of the three ladies was unleashed on the demon lord Belasco, causing the tyrant to drop to his knees in pain as he tried to combat them. He himself made a mental note to begin formulating just the right way to let them know he wasn't interested in a romantic relationship with them. One wrong word and that could be him receiving the mother of all brain blasts.

He might even get worse of Ms. Frost decided to express some displeasure as well.

"AAARRGHH! Hnnn! No! Get out of my mind!" Belasco bit out as he struggled against the telepathic assault.

"What do you want, Devil Man?" asked Phoebe with an unforgiving tone.

"You kidnap the innocent…we can see them." Mindee said as she and her sisters continued the assault. "We can see them all. Beatrice. Shanna. Illyana."

"But Illyana was special. You claimed her as a sacrifice but you came to feel for her," explained Celeste as they drained more knowledge from their foe. "You wanted her to be yours, body and soul."

"You lost her, just like the others." The sisters said as one as their focus put them more in sync. "But with her, the loss cut deeper. The thought that she had returned… it was too much. You didn't even realize that what you saw wasn't real. You couldn't find her. So you tried to recreate her.

"Her body… her mind… but it wasn't enough. You wanted more," said the triplets as signs of strain began to show on their faces. "You're not looking for her for revenge, or power…"

"You did all this… because you loved her." He said finishing the statement as the look he saw on the man's face could only be described as the look of someone who'd lost a loved one.

"Celeste…Phoebe…" Mindee bit out as signs of strain became signs of pain.

"He's…too…" Celeste bit out as her telepathy was quickly being overpowered.

"…strong!" finished Phoebe before there was nothing more that needed to be said.

Belasco roared as he let out an explosion of energy that was as uncontrolled as the demon's rage was at the moment.

Bringing up his sword in a guard position, he braced himself against the stony floor in an effort to stay on his feet but, as the sound of cracking reached his sensitive ears, he could tell that while he might be strong enough to stay upright, the surface beneath his feet wasn't. Deciding to change tactics, he stabbed downwards with his sword, embedding over half of it into the stone and thankfully this halted his forced backward slide.

"Hellion! X! Xander! Someone take him down!" yelled Surge from her position behind him.

He wanted to do what she asked but the demon lord was putting out so much power that he'd get thrown back if he pulled his sword out to attack.

"If you lying worms will not tell me where Magik is, then I will bring Earth to Limbo and **burn it away** until I find her!" yelled Belasco who sounded like he was coming close to losing it.

Bring Earth to Limbo! Was that even possible?

He was no expert on magic but transporting something the size of a planet into another dimension was something that even a god or goddess would need a miracle to pull off. However Belasco didn't seem to care about that little fact but rather, in his rage, seemed to only care about his satisfying his fury. The more he thought about it, the more he became convinced that if something wasn't done, soon both Limbo **and** Earth would be destroyed by the mad lord of demons.

Closing his eyes, he tried to will another of his Sesshomaru memories to the surface in the hopes that he'd have be able to pull another super technique out of his ass to save the day. However it looked like the fact that he knew the memories were there wasn't enough to summon them forth on command. He could sense them, sense their presence in his mind, but nothing he tried seemed to affect them, much less bring them forth to his conscious mind. Growling at this fact, he opened his eyes and decided that if no new techniques were going to pop up anytime soon, he'd try something new with the ones he could already perform. Pulling out the Tetsusaiga and using his other hand to unsheathe the Tenseiga, he willed the power within him to as high as he could without losing control of it. He could see the way his power was pushing all weaker things away from him but he did not let this affect his focus his power began to wrap itself around his swords.

"You will **do** nothing. You will soon **be** nothing," he said as both his focus and his determination brought out the Sesshomaru in him. "Die. KAZE NO KIZU! SORYUHA!"

With actions in perfect sync with his words, he slashed downward with the Tetsusaiga while performing an upward swipe with the Tenseiga. The combined effect was nothing short of impressive as, to the naked eye, it looked like the blue lightning dragon was gouging out golden scars in the ground without even touching it as the beast shot forward to strike its target. The best part, though, was the fact that since Belasco was so caught up in bringing Earth to Limbo he couldn't spare the energy to put up a barrier.

The explosion generated on impact reminded him of a nuclear explosion's mushroom cloud with the blue energy of the Tenseiga's attack being dominant and the Wind Scar's energy forming rings of light around the center. He could see an aura of green energy around Belasco, as though it was protecting the monster somehow, but in the end it couldn't match the raw power being thrown against it and, like a broken light bulb, it collapsed. Like a hungry beast the energy of his attacks tried to devour the ruler of Limbo, with bits and pieces coming off all the time. When the combined assault finally dissipated, all that was left was a seriously injured and barely conscious devil wannabe who was trying to get into a more dignified position.

Sensing movement, he turned to see some devil girl walking up to the Big Bad. He didn't know who she was but she looked like someone who'd either been trying to transform themselves or been transformed by someone else into a demon. Whatever the case, it looked like she'd volunteered to deliver the deathblow.

"…you…I gave you…life…my child…" Belasco said pleadingly as he looked up at the blonde, "…come back to me…"

"You did. You gave me a life with no soul. A life of hellish torture," the blonde said with quiet fury. "I've found the power to thank you for that. Look, Father. I've made a bloodstone just like you taught me."

"I will find her," Belasco said with all his remaining strength and defiance.

"No. You won't," said the she-devil as she unleashed the power of the amulet she held out in front of her.

There was a flash of light, bright enough to force him to look away, and when he looked back, all that remained of Belasco was a bloody smear on the ground.

A fitting end to a truly disgusting piece of filth.

_**The Next Day, The Real World, X-Mansion, Celeste Cuckoo's P.O.V**_

_So, what do you think, sisters?_ Celeste thought as she and her siblings lounged in their room. _Shall we give up pursuit of Xander 'Sesshomaru' Harris or not?_

_I don't know about you to but there's no way that I'm giving up a specimen like that._ Phoebe thought strongly as she turned to look at her less ambitious sister. _He's one of the most powerful people staying at the mansion at the moment, he's good looking, he isn't a pervert and he's nobility. I don't see us doing much better than him before we start getting all wrinkly._

She had to agree with her sister on that part.

Thanks to the actions of the Scarlet Witch, the mutant race had gone from being in the millions to under a thousand. While it was true that the Institute was home to a large concentration of mutants, those that might be able to stand toe to toe with Xander were few indeed. Those that were in their age range were either already paired off with someone or were egotistical morons that neither she nor her siblings would touch with a very long pole. Unless something happened out of nowhere, Xander Harris, aka Sesshomaru, truly would be the best they'd be able to do in terms of potential boyfriend and future husband. However, if they were indeed going to continue pursuit of their prize, there were a few issues that would need to be addressed immediately since they'd affect how they planned on winning the young Lord's heart.

_Assuming we go through with this, we have one big roadblock that we're going to have to get by. _she thought with enough seriousness to get her sisters to pay attention. _While he might not have actually taken the plunge and told her how he feels, it's pretty clear that Xander has feelings for Laura. We'd have to get rid of them somehow just to get him to take our advances seriously._

_I'll admit she'll be a problem but I think we can get past her._ Phoebe thought after taking a moment to consider the facts. _Xander's only closer to her because he feels sorry for what she went through with those Facility jerks. He won't even think about making a move on her until she's just like any other teenage girl. That'll take time. Time enough for us to sneak into his heart._

That was true.

While she hadn't done more than a surface scan on the female Wolverine, she could tell right away that the conditioning present in the New X-Man's mind was pretty thorough. There were weak spots, cracks that were getting larger the more the young woman interacted with others, but at the rate the changes were happening it'd take at least a decade before Laura would be halfway normal. That would be the only opening they'd likely have to win his affections before his sense of morality would allow him to move his friendship with X-23 to something more than that. Even with that opportunity, though, they would have a long road to travel since Xander seemed the type to be willing to wait for the woman he fancied. They would have to establish a strong bond with him early on and build upon it so that, when the ten years were up, they'd be in as strong a position to win his affections as Laura.

_Plus I'm sure that we'd be able to get help from Ms. Frost._ Phoebe thought with a confident smirk.

_No! If we want any chance at Xander, Emma has to stay out of it! _Mindee thought urgently, outright rejecting the idea of asking for the headmistress' help. _He's already angry with her for trying to get Laura to leave the Institute. If he finds out she's working with us, he'll be pissed at us as well._

Phoebe didn't seem to like that fact but at the same time couldn't argue against it. Ms. Frost's underhanded tactics to get X-23 out of the Institute had already made things icy between her and Xander. If they went to the former White Queen for any help, he'd direct his chilly gaze towards them as well and that was not something she wanted. She'd heard his chilling voice in Limbo when he dealt the decisive strike against Belasco and even remembering it had her shuddering. There was no way that she wanted to have Xander speak to her in such a tone, so she was in complete agreement with Mindee.

_Point._ Phoebe thought with annoyed acceptance.

_The second matter we have to take into account is the problem he might have with all three of us going after him at once,_ she thought, bringing the next issue up for discussion. _Regardless of what he's become, he's still an American teenager and raised to believe in the whole one man and one woman relationship. Appealing to his fantasies and hormones might get us halfway there but he'll probably feel like it's impossible to have more than one wife._

_Actually that might not be as big a problem as you think,_ Phoebe thought, her look of ambition returning. _Once Xander and the others got back from Sunnydale, I had a little talk with Chieko to see just what youkai were like in case it we needed it for our date. I think she figured out what I was up to but I didn't sense any deception from her. In fact, I'd say she wants us to make a play for Xander._

_Really? You'd think she'd be against someone scheming to bag her 'grandpa'._ Mindee thought with some mild surprise.

_I didn't particularly care about her reasons so I didn't scan her for them,_ Phoebe thought dismissive of any suspicion brought against the hanyou. _ANYway, I learned that over in Japan, youkai society is pretty much the same as it was five hundred years ago during Japan's warring states era with all the feudal lords and warlords._

_And the point is?_ She thought inquiringly as she sensed her sibling was purposefully trying to build up the suspense.

_The point, dear sister, is that during that time it wasn't at all uncommon for a feudal lord or samurai of high standing to have more than one wife._ Phoebe replied confidently. _Sure, one of them is the Alpha wife who has authority over all the others but I'm sure we can get the idea amended to include all three of us._

_Chieko told you this?_ She thought dubiously as she wondered how much of what her sister had revealed was accurate.

_Not in so many words but, when I asked her about what things were like back home, she just went on a rant about the purebloods back home._ Phoebe replied smiling at the opportunity that was getting brighter the longer it was in her mind. _She said that Xander was lucky that he wasn't back in Japan because, if he was youkai, women from every corner of the country would try to wed and bed him within a week of him getting there._

_He'd be that big a catch over there?_ Mindee inquired with curiosity.

_Pretty much. According to dog girl, he's royalty and as soon as her mom is finished setting things up over there, Chieko figures Xander will get dropped on the throne before he can blink._ Phoebe responded with images of her sitting next to Sesshomaru in an extravagant kimono floating through her mind. _As Xander's friends, we should do what we can to protect him from those opportunistic harpies._

_Pot meet kettle,_ she thought before she had a chance to censor her thoughts.

_Celeste!_ Phoebe thought loud enough to make all of their heads ring for a moment.

For a moment she considered apologizing and trying to rephrase what she'd thought but decided that it'd be better if she was straight with his sister.

"I'm not that far off the mark, Phoebe," she said out loud as she got to her feet. "Can you honestly say you'd have even looked in Xander's direction if he was just an ordinary human guy? Is it really him you like or what he represents to you?"

Walking out of the room, she began to ask herself the same questions: Would she have asked Xander out on a date if he was just a normal human? Did she like him for him or for what he could do for her?

Questions like those almost made her bump into more than a few things.

_**Headmistress' Office, Xavier Institute, Later That Day, Emma Frost's P.O.V**_

_It would appear the girls are already planning their next offensive._ Emma thought as she sensed the minor telepathic murmurs coming from the girls' room. _Good. I was concerned that I would have to arrange for another meeting between them and the young youkai lord._

It had been at the back of her mind during her date with Scott in New York that at the same time her girls were having their date with Xander. While she paid as much attention as was necessary to her boyfriend, a part of her mind was also speculating on just how far things would go back at the Institute. She knew that her Cuckoos had been taught the proper way to behave and pace romantic relationships had to go at in order to safely develop but they were still teenage girls and thus susceptible to being influenced by the emotional baggage of their age. So, while she would have been somewhat disapproving if they'd lost their sexual innocence the same night, she would have understood that the young were entitled to a handful of foolish choices. Given that she and Scott had come back to the Institute to find a dome of flame where the mansion used to be and most of the student body in Limbo fighting Belasco, she could honestly say she would have preferred to find them in the cafeteria going at it like rabbits.

_Still, the trip to Limbo wasn't a total waste._ She thought, recalling the debriefing she'd received from Mr. Alleyne. _Ms. Summers has gained better control over her powers and I now have additional information about Mr. Harris' swords._

She was most intrigued by the possibilities of Elizabeth's (she refused to call the girl something as undignified as 'Buffy') powers since they did not seem very limited. Energy, fire and stone were the forms that Prodigy had informed her of and she was sure that there were more that had not been witnessed by others. She was beginning to wonder if Hellmouths were hot spots for powerful allies but tempered her imagination with the fact that not everyone with power was trustworthy. For the time being she would wait to see which way Ms. Summers chose to go before doing any serious planning.

As for Xander's swords, David's report stated that they had many abilities and those abilities leaned more heavily on offense than defense. While as simple melee weapons they could be used with precision, the energy based attacks were more akin to Cyclops' optic blasts at full intensity. Definitely not something meant to allow a struck target to live or to allow even be a body to be buried afterwards. Considering the size of Harris' other form, it made sense to have weapons of such destructive power that they could dispatch giant threats of that size in one stroke. Still, she would have to caution him against using those energy attacks except in times of great need. Despite Scott's bitterness towards Xavier, her lover still held onto the belief that there was always a better way than killing one's enemies. Xander, however, was in her estimation much less hesitant about using lethal force on someone he considered an enemy.

Especially if they threatened someone he cared about.

That part had come through loud and clear when she talked to Prodigy. When Belasco had apparently slain X-23, Xander had been driven by the single-minded desire to kill Belasco in retaliation. The daiyoukai had apparently exhibited strength and speed far greater than previously leading her to believe that his emotional state played an important role in his power level. It made her wonder if he could be considered the same as the Hulk in that respect. Hopefully he wouldn't go totally caveman like Banner did when green, otherwise it just might affect his reputation and it wouldn't do for her girls to be dating a moron.

The only chink in her plan though was that obviously Xander had more than friendship feelings for X-23. Either that or he valued his friends so much that he'd react the same to anyone of them being killed. If it was indeed love he felt for the biological weapon… well, she would do her best to limit the time they spent together so her girls could gain a significant lead on the weapon disguised as a teenage girl. Once that was done, she was confident that the charms of the triplets would render any romantic feelings the daiyoukai might have towards anyone else nothing but a memory.

"Miss Frost?" came the voice of the person she'd been talking to while contemplating the possibilities.

"My apologies, Ms. Drew. I was contemplating a new development here at the school," she explained without giving too much away. "You were saying?"

"I was going to offer to speak with Iron Man about donating some extra security technology for your Institute," Jessica replied, overlooking the fact that the blonde hadn't been paying attention. "From what I've heard, the O.N.E forces are proving to be less than effective. Three assaults in a short period of time and not once did they prove useful in resolving the situation."

"True. I am sorry to say that even with technology the X-Men have acquired over the years, Institute security was still breached," she stated somewhat bitterly at the failures of the past. "However I will have to consult with Cyclops before I can agree to accept any new technology to enhance security in the Institute. You understand, of course?"

"Of course. Contact me when you've made your decision," Drew replied with what was probably meant to be a patient smile.

"Of course." She said before severing the connection.

While it was a bit of a lie to say that she need to consult with Scott on this matter, she realized that it would not do to aggravate the man given how they'd recently clashed on the X-23 issue. While it might look as though her lover was past that little spat, she knew that issues like that tended to simmer beneath the X-Man's mind for a little longer. Another week, maybe two, and it would be safe enough to broach the possibility of accepting new equipment onto Institute grounds. Personally she'd prefer not to have to rely on Stark for anything, even if the man meant well, but the attacks by Stryker and Belasco had harshly reminded her of how dangerous the times were. So far it had only been due to Xander's presence that they hadn't lost anyone and, if her sources were accurate, he would not be able to pull the same trick on the same people a second time. With that in mind, it was her position that something more was needed in order to ensure the safety of the mansion residents.

_Perhaps investigating the mystical approach might bear fruit. _She thought as she contemplated everything that Husk had reported from the trip to Sunnydale as well as her own experiences.

It certainly wouldn't be what any intruder would be expecting. In the long history of the X-men, their defenses had been primarily technological, with their mutant powers taking care of the rest. Those that had encountered the X-Men in the past would plan for those sorts of obstacles but wouldn't even give magical defenses more than a passing consideration. So long as they weren't obvious about it, she could see quite a few uses for mystical mechanisms being installed throughout the Institute grounds. The only catch, however, would be getting a qualified mystic on staff to monitor and maintain those arcane defenses. Most of the ones she knew were already busy with their own affairs or were dubious in where their loyalties lied. She would have to contact Dr. Strange and see if he could point her in the direction of someone both qualified and reliable.

It was then that a fact popped to the surface that caused her to smile.

_Perhaps I already know of a competent mystic._ She thought with rising confidence, _Or rather I know someone knowledgeable of the supernatural and a young woman with great arcane potential._

_**A Cliff Edge on Xavier Institute Property, Sunset, Laura's P.O.V**_

Alone.

It was both what she had been for most of her life and what she desperately wanted to escape. While with the Facility, the only two people who showed her any kindness, any compassion, was her sensei and her mother. They tried to sneak those things past Rice and the others whenever they could to keep her from completely becoming what they'd created her to be. Both were dead now. Killed by her hands while under the influence of the Trigger Scent she'd been conditioned with from an early age. When she'd escaped from them and tried to find some semblance of normalcy to learn from, **they** tore it away, forcing her to flee and hide. She thought she'd found a place for herself in New York City until the X-Men came to investigate the scene of one of her battles. With no way to simply disappear and an offer to be among people like herself, she had spent some time at the X-Mansion but, as with most good times, it soon came to an end.

And yet the fact that she was back here again made her wonder if there truly was something here for her.

She had to admit that this time at the mansion seemed to be different this time around. Whether it was because there were more mutants here own age to interact with or because of Xander, she didn't know. What she did know, though, was that she did not want to leave, even with Emma Frost using every covert method available to get her thrown out. She felt… she felt as though she just might have found a place where she belonged at long last and that was more valuable than anything else. She wanted to hold onto it with everything she had and, if anything tried to loosen her grip or tear it away from her, she would show no mercy.

She was about to return to the mansion when a scent wafted past her nose and a sound reached her ears, indicating that someone was approaching. Looking towards the source, she was surprised to find that it was Xander, clad in his more casual clothes rather than the outfit he usually wore into battle. She could see that his reluctance to go anywhere without his swords was still present as they were tucked beneath the belt wrapped around his waist but she consider this the prudent course of action. She had witnessed the awesome power each of the blades possessed and considered it vital that they be kept in safe hands at all times to ensure that no one of ill intent got a hold of them. While she was uncertain as to whether or not anyone else could utilize them effectively, it would be terrible in the hands of one who desired mass death and destruction. Seeing him approach, she felt an odd… peaceful feeling rise within her.

Peaceful and… pleasant.

"So, this is where you've been?" he asked rhetorically before looking about at the scenery. "Not a bad view. Looks like something you'd take a picture of if you had a camera."

Looking in the same direction as him, she agreed that the aesthetic elements were consistent with what most people would consider pleasing to the eye. Turning back to him, she saw that he'd gotten closer and was showing signs of anxiety and that was a serious deviation from how he usually behaved around her. Nevertheless she remained silent, believing that he would soon explain the reason for his current emotional state.

"So… I was wondering… how are you doing?" he asked, finally looking her in the eye with concern. "You didn't exactly get it easy while we're in Limbo."

So the reason why he was uneasy was because he was broaching a subject of her temporary demise during their battle with Belasco. It was something that Cessily had done as well but she just told her teammate on the New X-Men that she was coping in such a way that the issue would be considered closed. She preferred not to dwell on the memory and so had treated it like her past missions for the Facility: analyze what happened, mark areas of performance that need improving and move on. What did it matter if she temporarily perished? She was alive now and that was all that mattered.

"I overestimated the effect my claws would have on Belasco," she stated plainly. "I had thought he would be like the other demons you showed me. Obviously I will need to deepen my knowledge of demons and magic as soon as possible."

Xander looked a bit bothered by her nonchalance towards what happened. Most likely because he was used to others being more emotionally disturbed by the ordeal and in need of support by both friends as well as family. However she was not like other teenage girls and could cope quite well with the aftereffects of the mission in Limbo. She was no stranger to violence, nor to near-death experiences. Indeed there were times in which she had been wounded so severely that she'd lost consciousness but her healing factor was always up to the task of restoring her within a couple of minutes of unconsciousness. She supposed that her missions for the Facility had desensitized her to being hurt to the point of near death.

"Probably a good idea. Although the odds of meeting someone as powerful as him again are pretty slim," Xander said, moving the conversation along. "Still, like a favorite character of mine once said, 'information is ammunition' and against any baddies it's good to have as many bullets of data as possible."

"Indeed."

For a moment silence was all that existed between the two of them and it looked like her friend was mentally debating what to do next. Did he feel obligated as her friend to provide a level of support and felt he still needed to do more? Possibly. She decided the best thing to do was somehow make it clear to him that he need not do more and move them past this post mission awkwardness. The question was: what should she do? It would unwise to make it something verbal since she hadn't mastered all of the slang and informal ways of speaking commonly associated to someone her gender and age. An action of comfort then, perhaps? She pondered the possibilities she'd observed in the past and decided on the one that best matched the level of the situation. Walking up to him, she promptly embraced him in a hug, laying her head on his chest.

For a moment she thought she had done something wrong when he didn't react as expected but, when she felt his arms wrap around her as well, she felt confident that she'd done the right thing.

"Thank you for your concern, Xander," she said, expressing her gratitude. "I appreciate it."

"You're important to me, Laura," Xander said with affection. "Never doubt that."

"I won't." she declared, meaning both words completely.

Thus they stood at the edge of the cliff, arms wrapped around one another, with the sun setting in the background.

Neither of them moved from their positions until the last rays of sunlight vanished.


	13. The Green Scar Cometh

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted materials contained herein. They are the rightful property of their creators and associated companies. I make no profit off of this fanfic whatsoever and have no intention of changing this ever. I write because it's fun and because there are those that enjoy reading my work. I would therefore appreciate it if you could refrain from filing lawsuits against me because I can assure you that any money you get from me wouldn't cover even a tenth of your legal fees.

_**One Week Later, Living Room Inside the X-Mansion, Evening, Cessily's P.O.V**_

_Focus, Cessily. One good zap from Surge and I'm a puddle on the floor. Can't screw up in front of Mr. McCoy or Xander. _Mercury thought as she stretched her body to the side to avoid a blast from Nori.

"Impressive shape-shifting, Mercury; your control's improving. Rockslide, that's five points deducted for the lamp." Beast said as he observed the New X-Men training.

"Dang! How come we're not sparring in the Danger Room?" Santo asked as he tried to hit Laura.

"Because when you're full-fledged X-Men, your battles won't happen in reinforced sub-basements. Many will occur in public." McCoy replied without missing anything going on in front of him.

She had to smile at the praise that she'd received from one of the founding members of the X-Men. While she had to admit that it hadn't been a goal of hers originally to become an X-Man, after all that had happened since coming to the Institute she'd realized the importance of continuing the legacy. The files, the stories told in class and the hearsay she'd overheard made it clear that sometimes the team of mutants was all that stood between the world and total oblivion. Despite not receiving the same sort of press as the Avengers due to a quirk in their DNA, the X-Men were just as good as the well-loved team.

Looking to see how the others were doing, she could see that despite having great strength and a stone body, Rockslide wasn't skilled enough to keep up with Laura. She was dancing around him with little effort, taking potshots at him as she went but being careful not to do any serious damage. Julian was using his telekinesis to keep Dust at bay despite her being mostly sand at the moment. Xander was currently paired with his friend Buffy, who appeared to be trying to selectively transform her limbs so that only one changed form at a time. The blonde was lucky that Beast was able to come up with an outfit for her that could stand up to her more destructive changes or she'd wind up flashing everyone after the first exchange of blows. Xander, on the other hand, was apparently trying to go all Neo on her by just standing there and using quick bursts of speed to either evade or block her moves. His was speed was impressive as it caused her to lose track of him when he moved but it looked like his friend was getting pissed about her lack of progress. That was one thing she'd come to learn about the Californian girl since she'd come to stay at the Institute: she might complain about her new circumstances but she also took pride in what she could do.

"Don't let your emotions get the better of you, Slayer." Beast said, using the girl's former title as her codename. "You can do a lot more damage now that your powers have activated and that means innocent people will be put in danger if you don't stay in control."

"I know! I KNOW!" Buffy growled even as she tightened up her moves a little more.

While it was true that the teen had only come to the mansion to learn how to control her powers, something she was making great strides at, she also hadn't hesitated to fight alongside the New X-Men when needed. Mr. McCoy was still working with her in the lab trying to figure out the limits of her abilities as well as the potential dangers but the former Queen of Hemery High always slipped out at the first opportunity. She'd inquired but had simply been told by the pointy-eared person that she didn't like hospitals and, after her encounter with the Initiative, didn't like labs either. Unlike some guys she could mention, she'd been smart enough to change topics immediately to something a little safer. Still, if the hmmms and hmphs were anything to go by, Dr. McCoy was having a difficult time figuring out what his various instruments were telling him. Still she was confident he'd figure it out. After all, this was the guy who helped find a cure for the Legacy Virus and regularly matched wits with the best minds on the planet. Nothing could keep him puzzled for very long.

**RRRMMBBLLL!**

The ground shook violently, causing everyone to break off their sparring if only to maintain their balance. For those in the air it wasn't a problem but for those that needed a steady base it took grabbing a hold of something steady to stay on their feet.

"Earthquake!" Julian exclaimed as the shaking continued.

"No. Look outside," McCoy stated as he hung upside down on an overhead light fixture. "The Sentinels are taking off."

"I thought their job was to keep an eye on us." She said as she watched more and more of the O.N.E Sentinels take to the sky.

"It is. For the Office of National Emergency to call them away…" Hank said as he dropped to the floor, "If we haven't managed to break the TV maybe we can find out what's happening."

"I've got it, Mr. McCoy." Xander said crossing the room in an instant to turn on the big screen TV.

Almost immediately they found out what the likely cause of the commotion was but she quickly found herself wishing they'd stayed ignorant. On the screen with a distinctly pissed look on his face was none other than The Hulk. Clad in armor and holding the beaten form of the Inhuman known as Blackbolt in his right hand, it was clear the founding member of the Avengers wasn't broadcasting an invite to a party.

"You have twenty-four hours. Evacuate the city. When I return, I want to see Mr. Fantastic, Iron Man and Doctor Strange," declared the Hulk with a voice like thunder. "And if they're not here…I'll do this…to your whole stinking planet."

With that the broadcast returned to the news studio where the anchorperson immediately began to summarize what was going on. However she doubted that anyone in the room was paying attention because she knew for a fact that she wasn't. While the green machine wasn't exactly someone who kept his activities known to all, there hadn't been a Hulk sighting in months. Not since shortly before M-Day. From the looks of things whatever vacation the mountain of power went on went beyond sour and that didn't bode well for anyone who got in his path.

"Dear God." McCoy gasped before turning off the TV.

"We have to go there. Take him down." Hellion stated, showing once again how his mouth tended to act without consulting his mouth.

"What were we just practicing, Hellion?" asked Nori who sounded like she wanted to smack Julian upside the head, "How many people would die in a fight like that?"

"You mean besides us?" Xander asked sarcastically looking less than thrilled at the idea of duking it out with the Hulk, "I don't know about the rest of you but I don't want to play David to his Goliath. Mostly 'cause I doubt a rock to the head would do more than piss him off."

"They're right," she said putting her opinion in. "We should go, but to help people evacuate."

"You're going nowhere. I'm alerting the other teams. They're already in the field, they'll handle—" Beast said as he pressed a button on a device in his hand.

**THOOOOM! **

Once again the ground did shake and this time both she and Hellion were knocked on their asses while the rest simply dropped to one knee. The shaking didn't last quite as long this time but she had a feeling that wasn't a good thing. Dr. McCoy leapt for the window to see what was going on and she didn't like the tone of his voice as he whispered out 'oh no' one little bit.

When she got to the window she could see why.

The Hulk had arrived at the Institute still in as foul a mood as ever.

"Xavier." Hulk said with a voice loud enough to be clearly heard despite the distance involved, "I want Xavier. NOW."

Almost immediately afterward both Prodigy and Elixir burst into the room looking to spread the word about what they'd found out. They needn't have bothered.

"I saw Elixir. I've already sent out a mayday call to the others," McCoy replied to the golden boy's question. "Prodigy, round up the students and take them to the sub-basement. Get them out through the old Morlock tunnels. Tell the Professor what's happening. The students' safety is priority one. Understand?"

"Yes sir." David replied seriously understand that a major fight was about to break out.

"We'll try to buy you as much time as we can." Hank said placing both hands on the former mutant's shoulders.

"Buy-?" Rockslide asked with some confusion, "Awww, yeah! I'm going to fight The Hulk! Playin' in the **Majors**, baby! You ain't **nobody** in this business 'til you've fought the Hulk! This is **awesome**!"

_You'd think after everything we've been through he'd realize this isn't a game to get psyched over._ She thought shaking her head at Santo's enthusiasm, _Boys will be boys, I guess._

"Rockslide. Santo." Beast said quickly intervening before the rocky mutant got too fired up, "Listen to me. This is not 'awesome'. It's not a game. I've fought the Hulk before several times. And I've **never** seen him like this. This is not the 'wounded child' Hulk. This is not the 'barroom brawler' Hulk. This is a Hulk fueled by so much rage he could destroy everything in his path.

"This building houses one-quarter of the mutants left on Earth. On **Earth**. We're not fighting for fun, nor to prove who's stronger, or to bring a villain to justice. We're fighting to prevent genocide," Hank said loud enough for everyone to hear. "I'll try to talk to him. But the Hulk's never been one for talking, so we need a plan. I'd never ask this if the stakes weren't so high and the other instructors weren't away. If anyone doesn't feel—"

"I think it's pretty much a given that we're all in, Mr. McCoy." Xander said taking a step forward. "If anyone on the New X-Men were afraid of fighting for what we believed in we probably would have been gone after the attack on the bus. So just tell us the plan before Big Green out there gets impatient."

She had to smile at that. In one sentence Xander managed to state what was on the minds of everyone in the room. Even Nori seemed to stand behind the statement and, surprisingly enough, there wasn't any resentment like you might expect for someone else taking up a position usually reserved for the leader. Then again she got the feeling that all the stress of the last couple of weeks had been getting the blue-haired girl and maybe she was actually considering abdicating her position. If that was the case, then Xander'd be a shoe in for the role. Just about everyone on the New X-Men respected him and he'd shown at least twice already he could dish out the battle plans as well as anyone else. She knew Ms. Frost would back that idea. It'd been pretty much common knowledge among the student body that she was trying to nudge the snowy daiyoukai into a position of power. The only thing probably keeping the guy from accepting was the bad feelings between him and the headmistress over the blonde's treatment of Laura. She had her own bone to pick with Ms. Frost over that but she might be willing to overlook it if it meant keeping Xander around.

"You're going to make wonderful X-Men," McCoy said with pride before getting serious. "All right, here's what we'll do."

With that Beast outlined a plan that was heavy on the caution but also had its go for broke moments. Considering they were about to lock horns with one of the most powerful beings on the planet, she wasn't at all surprised. While her mutant powers meant she could ooze out of his grip if he ever got a sold hold on her she still didn't like the images that were coming to mind.

_I just hope that the school's left standing at the end of all this,_ she thought as everyone began to move to their assigned positions.

_**Out of Sight Near the Front Entrance of the Mansion, Five Minutes Later, Xander's P.O.V**_

_I really need to have my head examined._ Xander thought as he watched McCoy open the front door. _Throwing down with the __**HULK**__! This is way past insane!_

After all, this guy when he put his mind to it was strong enough to hold an entire mountain on his back, which probably rated at around one hundred and fifty **billion** tons. When he'd worked with Beast, he'd found that the upper limit of his enhanced strength was roughly a hundred to a hundred and thirty tons. Needless to say that was decidedly less than it would take to hold up a mountain and if this version of the Hulk was even stronger than that…well, he wouldn't be challenging the guy to an arm wrestling match anytime soon. Still, he had stated that he'd help the New X-Men defend the mansion and he didn't go back on his words even in the face of getting pounded into paste. Besides, during the time he'd been there some of these people had become his buddies while the ladies were pretty much card carrying members of 'Xander's girls' club.

_Guess I'm really going to find out just how much of a beating this body of mine can take._ He thought as he tried to ignore the fact that he'd have to go through considerable pain to find out.

Looking back to the door he couldn't help but be a little afraid of the green behemoth that took up almost the entire doorframe with his size.

Not Good.

"Ah…hello, Bru…Hulk. What—" Beast asked trying to be polite before he was cut off.

"Xavier. Bring him here." Hulk demanded in a tone that wouldn't tolerate a 'no' answer.

"You know I can't do that." Hank stated as calmly as possible.

"Out of the way. I'll find him myself." Hulk stated in a way that made it sound more like an order.

"I'm afraid I can't do that either." McCoy stated sounding less sure of himself then before.

"Wasn't asking." Hulk said before out of nowhere the giant swatted Hank aside like he was nothing.

That was the sign that negotiations had broken down so now was the time to move onto phase two just like Beast instructed.

"Hit him hard!" Julian yelled as the New X-Men charged forth, Rockslide scoring the first hit with a horizontal double axe handle to the jaw.

Surprisingly enough it was enough to knock the green giant to the ground and that was all the rest of the team needed to seize control of the fight.

All at once they moved, with Hellion using his TK to restrain the muscle man's arms while Rockslide prepared to deliver a solid right cross to the Hulk's jaw. Surge added electrical blasts to the mix while Dust used her sand form to blind their enemy and Cessily tried to stab the brute with her left arm. He hung back with Buffy for the time being since there was no room left to get in close but she could tell his Slayer friend was just as ready as he was to jump in when an opening presented itself.

"McCoy! You got **two seconds** to call these kids off, or what happens to them is on you!" Hulk roared with anger as he tried to free himself gently.

Well, gently for the Hulk anyway.

Still it looked like the big guy wasn't going to go easy on them if they refused to back off. In fact it sounded like he'd go all out if they continued to piss them off. Shaking off what fear started to bubble up within him, he tried to wrap himself in the cold fury that he'd experienced on occasion. The icy chill that Chieko said he was famous for in his past life. Doing this he hoped would keep him from hesitating or screwing up too badly.

"Time's up." Hulk stated and, in a massive show of strength, he freed his arms and knocked all of the New X-Men away.

Impressive.

Didn't stop him and Buffy from moving in and taking it to the big man but it made it all too clear what they were up against. He moved first, using his speed in combination with his youki-charged claws to target the superhero gladiator's joints in the hope of disabling them. He was surprised to find that even with the energy, strength and speed behind them, his claws weren't going nearly as deep as he thought they would've. However he kept his speed up and tried to keep his movements as chaotic as possible to keep Mr. Green Genes from predicting where he'd be. Seeing Buff about to make her move, he delivered a strong kick to the back of the Hulk's head to provide an opening then retreated to what he hoped was a safe distance.

Watching as her body began to transform, he was satisfied to see it take on a more metallic form that looked as though it was as tough as it was strong. Then with speed and skill and grace he remembered seeing her use against the demons of Sunnydale, she began to lay into him using every move in her repertoire. He was optimistic at first since it looked like the Hulk was out of his league with her but that quickly turned to concern when, what had to be a fluke move on the big guy's part, the titan managed to grab her by shoulder. However before he could deliver a blow or crush her with his bare hands, her body changed to smoke, slipping through his fingers with ease. The behemoth still got his shot in though as clapped his hands together with such force that Buffy's still-gaseous form was blown away like the real thing.

Deciding to let the rest of the New X-Men handle the Hulk for the time being, he immediately moved and used his speed to direct the air in such a way so as to keep Buffy's bits from floating too far away from each other. Last thing he wanted was for the Buffster to suddenly solidify in a dozen little pieces. A smile blossomed on his face as he watched her return to her default form looking none the worse for wear. A little dazed maybe but he knew she'd shake that off easily enough. As he looked back to the battle, he was treated to a desperate sight as each of his teammates were giving it their best but still being dealt with in one or two blows. Dust was knocked out of the air using water from a pipe that usually fed the fountain and Beast was punched away yet again, making him wonder if the blue furred adventurer would need some infirmary time after all this.

Heading to rejoin the battle, he was just in time to see Santo move to exchange blows and hear the words being spoken.

"Porco! I can't believe I used to pretend I was you when we played super hero battles!" Rockslide said, sounding like he'd had a childhood dream shattered.

"You're the one who can control his body when it's in pieces," Hulk said before grabbing both of the stony mutant's arms and pulling them right off before doing the same to the legs. "Question: Can you still control them when they're in Connecticut?"

Moving with speed that to the commoner made it look as though he was teleporting, he zipped into the air and managed to grab Santo's limbs before they got too far. With a little spin he threw all four of them as hard as he could at the Hulk's back, hoping that it'd knock the brute off his teammate while at the same time giving Rockslide a chance to pull himself back together.

"Sorry Big Guy! All I can say is: RETURN TO SENDER!" he exclaimed right as the stone limbs struck the Hulk in the back.

Like the grim reaper Laura chose that moment of vulnerability to cut in with her claws and, while the behemoth managed to dodge the ones on her hand, he was completely caught by surprise by the one on her foot. One swift slice later and the super Spartan was blinded as the blade had cut clean through both eyes like a hot knife through butter. Shock and pain brought the big man down to all fours and, as a team, all of them knew that now was the time to dogpile the opposition before he got his act together. Electrical blasts, fists and blades struck the mountain of a man at point blank range with him deciding to experiment to see just how much youki had to be in his claws to penetrate deep into the green skin of the Hulk. For a moment it looked like they just might have neutralized the former Avenger as a threat, the alter ego of Bruce Banner showed why he had the right to boast that he was the strongest one there was. With a vicious backhand all of them were knocked back and, while his head was only slightly ringing, it looked like both Surge and Mercury were unconscious. However it was when the green giant grabbed Laura like he was going to break her in half that all signs of injury vanished from his body.

Almost before he even realized what he was doing he was landing behind the Hulk with the drawn Tetsusaiga in his right hand and it was glowing blood red. Turning around, he was shocked to find the Hulk pressing a hand to a wound in his side with Wolverine's daughter on the ground not too far away, gradually recovering as her healing factor did its job.

"You're going to pay for that, girly man!" Hulk growled out as he got back to his feet.

Rising up from his crouched stance, he decided to go with the momentum he'd built in the hopes that he'd somehow manage to make the guy actually think up a strategy beyond 'Hulk SMASH'.

"The name is Sesshomaru and you are pretty cocky to say something like that with the blood leaking out your side," he stated with a voice as cold as the arctic. "Don't tell me you seriously expected us to just roll over for you in our own home, did you? Would you roll over for someone who started a fight in your home? I don't think so."

Then bringing the fang turned sword into one of the many starting offensive positions Chieko had taught him, he made his final statement.

"Now you can either leave quietly or be carried out. Your choice," he said, putting as much confidence and fact stating in his voice as possible.

"I choose none of the above." Declared the Hulk before getting ready to charge him.

However before anyone could say anything more a form dropped from the sky and tore open the gamma green goon's back… a form with three claws popping out of his fists.

"GRRAAAGH!" bellowed the Hulk as the pain registered in his brain.

"Too bad this ain't multiple choice, Bub." Came a familiar gravelly voice from behind the Hulk, "You're real impressive beatin' on kids but it's grown up time now."

With that Wolverine ripped his Adamantium claws out of the behemoth's back in a manner to cause the most damage before jumping to the ground a few feet away with the X-Men's Blackbird jet decloaking in the air behind him. One by one the senior team of the X-Men dropped to the ground making it clear that they were ready to both start and finish the fight one way or another.

"Hnh. This is the fight I was expecting. BRING IT ON!" Hulk challenged as he turned to fully face his more experienced opponent.

_**Slowly Using the Mansion Wall to Get to Her Feet, Buffy's P.O.V**_

_Who knew turning into smoke would take so much out of a girl._ Buffy thought as she finished getting to her feet, _Don't want to try __**that**__ again anytime soon!_

It'd been ages since she'd felt this worn out and what made it worse was the fact that she knew there was still a fight to finish. She heard Mr. Outdoor Woodsman a moment ago so that had to mean that the more experienced fighters had made it back. Hopefully no one would mind if she took a breather because she knew that if she had to trade blows with the Hulk again, she was going to need all the strength she could get. She'd given it her all but for someone so big the Hulk could be real quick when he wanted to be. Her exchange with him, however, made it clear she needed finer control otherwise her body was going to put her in a more serious bind by transforming into something that could get her killed by accident.

"No, Hulk," came a voice from the battered front door of the mansion, "I believe you said you're here for me. Now that I've seen my students to safety, you've got your wish."

Turning, she spotted the bald guy around Giles' age who, according to the gossip around the Institute, was the guy who started it all and who the Hulk had come here demanding to get. Willing her body into the energy form she'd used in Limbo, she prepared to erect a barrier in front of the guy who sounded like he should be starring in a Shakespearean play if the Hulk made a move towards him.

"Xavier. You're walking again." Hulk said with a menacing look, "I can fix that."

"Yes, I know. You're the strongest one there is…physically." Xavier said bringing his hands up to his head as if to meditate, "But **my** power lies in another area."

With that her head damn near exploded as a combination of pain and images flooded her mind. All the images, all the thoughts, seemed to be from the Hulk's perspective and they showed an alien world where you needed to be deadlier than death itself just to make a difference. She saw how after a shitload of pain and trials he actually found a wife and a place to call his own. For a moment she wondered why he was so pissed and it was then that one final image reached her mind amidst feelings of grief-driven rage.

An image of the Hulk holding the charred corpse of his wife with his new world, a lava riddled wasteland behind him.

Then with a snap she was back in the real world, on her hands and knees, in what had become her default form. For several seconds she didn't move as her mind tried to come to grips with what she had just seen. An entire world blown up and almost everyone he'd come to care about reduced to charred corpses or ash in the wind. It made her wonder if she was really fighting on the right side. If Xavier had really played a part in that, if the others the Hulk had mentioned on TV had played a part in that, then they deserved everything they had coming theit way. It wouldn't matter if they were human or not.

"Hulk, I…I had no idea…" McCoy gasped out as he recovered from the mind blast.

"You all saw that, huh?" Hulk asked rhetorically as he turned his head, "Xavier's pals did that to me."

"Hulk…Bruce, Reed and the others sent you into space, yes. But the bomb that destroyed your city…I can't imagine them ever doing such a thing." Xavier said as he regained his equilibrium, "But I don't know. I wasn't with them when they made their plans."

"I know. But according to what I beat out of Black Bolt, you were supposed to be," Hulk said sounding more reasonable but still set on his current path. "You were one of the guys they decided was smart enough to play God. To decide what to do with me—with **ME**—like I'm a rabid dog. So I'm asking you a question: if you'd been there, when they were debating whether or not to ruin my life… how would you have voted?"

For a moment only silence was in the air but it was clear from the look on the jade giant's face he would get his answer one way or another.

"Answer me, Xavier. When Iron Man, Dr. Strange, Black Bolt and Reed Richards decided to shoot me into space like garbage… to destroy my life… you were supposed to be there." Stated the Hulk, looking down at the man who barely came to his chest, "And I want to know how you would have voted. Two seconds. Then I start smashing."

"Forgive me, Bruce. I'm not avoiding the question," Charles said closing his eyes as if to banish some unpleasant memories. "It's just that this seems to be a theme lately. Decisions I made in the past coming back to haunt me. Decisions I thought served the greater good of humankind, of mutantkind… of those I loved.

"But that I now realize were wrong, whether they turned out well or badly… because I made them unilaterally. Arrogantly I presumed I knew best." Xavier said with regret tainting his voice, "The honest answer is this. I wouldn't have agreed to exile you forever. But I would have voted to send you away while we searched for a cure. You're right; I have been guilty of playing God. And there's nothing I can do to make up for it. But perhaps I can atone. I'll surrender willingly."

"Smart move. Don't worry. You'll have Stark and the others to keep you company soon." Hulk said as he reached for the Professor.

He didn't get very far before Tin Man metal hand grabbed him by the wrist, stopping it in its tracks. Then one by one each of the senior X-Men began forming a living wall between the Hulk and Xavier, making it clear that they weren't going to allow to their mentor to go without a fight.

"One moment, Tovarisch. The Professor may have agreed to his surrender but **we** have not." Tin Man said without compromise.

"This really how you want it? All of you?" asked the Jade Giant, sounding like it didn't matter to him either way.

It took only a second of wordless glances before Cyclops looked the Hulk right in the eye and said "All of us."

"Good," declared the Hulk as he raised his giant arms in the air ready to smash the opponents before him.

Watching as the more experienced mutants began to wail on the enemy with everything they had, she wondered if she should even bother tossing herself into that battle zone. She could tell right away that the X-Men were a team, a group of people who knew each other's moves well enough to work in perfect synch with each other, and she'd probably only mess things up if she got involved. So instead she decided she'd help the still recovering New X-Men inside the mansion so they could be treated. With a bit of luck enough of them would be back on their feet in time to be a second wave for the senior X-People. Carefully moving around the periphery of the battle, she made her way to Surge and with utmost care lifted the girl up bridal style before heading back towards the mansion.

"Huh…wha…what's going on?" Nori asked as she regained consciousness.

"Short story? Cyclops and the others are back. They're taking it to the Hulk and I'm taking you to get a medical once over." She replied as she followed Golden boy in with Keller.

"'mm fine…just need a breather…" Surge said trying to get back onto her own feet but not quite succeeding.

"Oh yeah! You're doing fine…that concussion isn't making you all weeble wobble at all." She said with sarcasm before tightening her grip a bit, "Now stay put while I go looking for a First Aid kit."

She hoped that the X-Men had a backup plan because if the Hulk tore through them as quickly as he did the New X-Men they'd last twenty minutes tops.

_Don't worry. We're going to reach out and touch some people._ Came the voices of the Cuckoos in her head, _People who became who they were meant to be in this place._

_**California, A High Class Demon Restaurant, Fifteen Minutes Ago, Chieko's P.O.V**_

"How are things proceeding with Alexander, daughter?" Tsukiko asked before cutting off a piece of her meal and eating it.

"Not bad. He's still a little lazy but I'm beating that out of him quick enough," she replied as she used her chopsticks to bring another mouthful of noodles to her mouth. "I figure by this time next month he'll be good enough to go on a **real** mission without making a total ass of himself."

"Good, then his training is proceeding at pace." Stated the Lady of the Western Lands of Japan with a nod of approval, "I will attempt to give you all the time you require, my daughter, but be aware that the supernatural world has begun to take notice of him. They at first thought it only rumor and fear but with his recent activities in Sunnydale and in Limbo, I fear it will not be long before they act."

This actually made her pause mid-chew as she considered what her mother was actually saying. It had been one of the few things in their favor that the majority of the supernatural world didn't believe in the rumors that the great Lord Sesshomaru would someday return to reclaim what belonged to him. After all, just about every big bad demon and ningen sorcerer made the claim that they'd return one day but, in reality, only one out of every twenty among that group managed to pull it off. Even then they almost always returned lacking something that made them so great in the first place. For some they got sloppy, thinking that they didn't need to stay sharp when they could just resurrect themselves using the same old process. For others their rebirth came at the cost of owing a being greater than themselves a big favor and those that tried to break out of the deal were at best given one warning as to why that wasn't such a good idea. In the end that bootlicker Jakken and her mother had taken the safest route of the lot but also the one least likely to succeed: they'd let nature take its course and instead of forcing the son of the great general Inutaisho where and when they wanted him they simply waited for him to be reincarnated, then located the host body. In truth they had given many different agents talismans that could bring about the return of Sesshomaru should they locate his spirit.

D'Hoffryn had just gotten lucky.

Both she and her mother had known that not everyone would take the return of the Tai Inu Youkai of the West well. Gramps had made more than a few enemies before he'd gone down for good the first time and demon groups of all sorts stood to lose quite a bit if Xander was truly recognized as the Lord of the Western Lands reborn. That was one of the secret reasons her mother had her go with Xander back to the Institute to train him. The night before they'd left, they had debated how much time they had before the big players in the supernatural community began to move seriously.

Neither of them had expected it to last past early to mid-spring.

"I'll have to speed up his training then. He's only managed to unlock two of the special techniques that he can use with his swords," she said as she began to make rough notes on how to change the training sessions. "He's got three or four more to go and a helluva lot more experience to gain before he can hold his own against the baddest of the bad."

"Experience should not be difficult if what I've learned of the X-Men is accurate. Focus on teaching him the skills and abilities that were once his. The rest will take care of itself," stated her mother confidently, a small grin on her face.

_I hope Xander manages to live up to Mom's expectations._ She thought with a mental frown at her mother's eternal confidence in her father.

She meant it when she said that he wasn't doing all that bad but, if the movers and shakers of the paranormal were getting ready to rumba, she had to raise the bar a bit. She'd have to find some isolated spot in the middle of nowhere on the Institute grounds, though, since a lot of what she'd have to teach from this point on would cause a lot of property damage. She knew it wouldn't be hard to persuade the people in charge of this since they'd seen firsthand the kind of destruction the Tetsusaiga was capable of. She just hoped that the idiots didn't try charge her or her family the cost of repairing all the damage afterwards.

"Anything else I should be worried about?" she asked figuring it'd be best to get all the bad news right away, even if it would likely spoil her appetite.

"Nothing that cannot wait, daughter. Some of the ruling youkai clans have made subtle inquiries as to Alexander's marital status but I have managed to discourage such topics from being discussed often." Lady Tsukiko said with a look of bitterness on her face, "I doubt a single one of them truly care about whom they are marrying. They are likely only focused on **what** they would be marrying into."

"Don't worry, Mom. If everything goes the way I've planned, Xander'll be off the market before he even puts one foot on Japanese soil." She said with a smile of deviousness that caused her Mom to raise an eyebrow.

"What are you up to daughter?" asked the elder inu hanyou with a bit of warning.

She was about to reply when she felt someone, make that three someones, touch her mind telepathically. She was about to use the strongest technique she knew to repel the unwanted intrusion into her mind when images began to flow across her mind's eye. Images of the mansion under assault from the being known the world over as the Hulk and scenes of the fight going less than well. The worst thing, though, was that Xander was in the middle of it all looking like he actually thought he was good enough to beat such a powerhouse. That idiot! He couldn't beat someone like the Hulk with moves like that! Even demons who usually looked down upon humans had learned to fear and respect the Hulk if for no other reason than because the monster of a man appeared to have no limit to his immense strength. Then, as quickly as the images appeared, they vanished and her mind was her own again but it didn't matter because she knew she'd have to cut her dinner plans short now.

"What is it daughter?" Tsukiko asked not missing the signs of a telepathic conversation.

"The Hulk is attacking the Xavier Institute and, as usual, gramps is in the middle of it all trying to help out." She said before wolfing down the rest of her bowl of ramen, "A trio of telepaths that live there just sent the telepathic equivalent of an S.O.S to everyone they could think of for back up. I gotta go."

"Then might I suggest you persuade the manager to let you use the VIP teleportation circle?" Said her mother without any delay. "He owes our family some favors and it should be possible to link the circle here with the one on the Xavier Institute property."

"Won't that make the secure teleportation circle between home and the Institute less…well, secure?" she asked, wondering if it'd be better to use one of the civilian circles and touch down in the city closest to the Institute instead.

"You forget the care and quality work that went into creating the connection." Tsukiko replied without concern, "The manager of this establishment is no magic user and without special modifications, any ties to the link between the Institute and our home in Japan will fade within the hour."

"Well, if you say so…" she said, hoping that her mother wasn't overestimating the skill or loyalty of the youkai behind their personal highway connecting the Institute with the castle back home.

Getting up from the table and dropping enough money to pay for the food, she went over to the weapons check booth to get her weapons back before asking to speak to the manager of the place. She just hoped that Xander wouldn't take too many chances before she got there. He might have a lot of power under the hood but he didn't have anywhere near the level of experience needed to use that power to its fullest.

_If he winds up in the infirmary again, I'll wait until he's out then kick his ass back in there for screwing up so bad!_ She thought with a growl as she waited for the guy who owned the fancy restaurant.

_**The X-Mansion, Ten Minutes After the X-Men Began Fighting the Hulk, Laura's P.O.V**_

To say that the battle could be going better would be something of an understatement.

While the arrival of the rest of the X-Men and the X-Factor Investigations team had added more numbers to oppose the Hulk, insufficient progress had been made in defeating the target. In terms of strength, durability and regenerative capabilities, he was proving to be beyond what they could inflict upon him. The Hulk's combat skills, while not as good as they could have been, were still impressive for one of his significant size. However, as the green giant hadn't drawn the sword on his back yet, nor truly killed anyone, it was her opinion that the behemoth wasn't taking them seriously. However she considered this a factor in their favor since their side would likely sustain massive casualties if the jade giant truly decided to wipe them out. At the moment the only thing keeping their numbers stable was Xander who was using his sword Tenseiga to heal the wounded with a single slash. That didn't keep most of the New X-Men from being kept in back-up positions behind the senior X-Men but it was the prudent tactical choice to make. While no longer lacking in field experience after their battles with Stryker, Nimrod, the Facility and Belasco's hordes, fighting the Hulk was proving to be beyond their current capabilities.

Not that she was any better, though.

Despite her training, she had not managed to do much more against the mountain man of muscle. In truth she knew why: most of her targets had been ordinary humans with guns. During her time as their weapon, the Facility had primarily sent her to kill members of organized crime or people who posed a threat to members of organized crime. The Fade, the gangster with the ability to render himself invisible to all manner of sight, had been one of the few super powered targets she'd been sent to kill. Never had she been given the assignment to kill a high profile target with power on the same level as the Hulk. Most likely this was because the Facility didn't want to attract the attention of the super powered community any more than they had to. Partially because the villains were some of their major clients and partially because the heroes had the resources to track them down as well as take them out. So long as they kept their targets restricted to people who normal people, it'd just be written off as another murder in a world where someone died every couple of seconds. However, if she killed someone like Captain America or even someone lower like Daredevil, then she'd register on the radar of the other costumed heroes and be a target for his closest allies. Rice was smart enough to know this and plan his business around her accordingly.

_Nevertheless, I must remember to increase the combat level of the battle drones in the Danger Room. I will likely face more opponents of the Hulk's caliber in the future._ She thought as she watched the battle rage in front of her as she waited for an opening to make a difference. _If I do not improve, I will become a liability to the team. One that could possibly cost my teammates their lives._

Seeing the Hulk grabbing Wolfsbane and using the werewolf to knock Siryn from the sky, she took the opportunity provided. Popping the claws in both her hands as well as her feet, she leapt onto the back of the jade giant and focused on being a distraction. This hopefully would allow Monet, Strong Guy and Rockslide to deliver a few debilitating blows. Each time her target tried to grab her or shake her loose, she adjusted her position to prevent either of those things from happening. However she ensured she'd be ready for when he inevitably tried to ram his back into something to dislodge her. It was a common enough counter to this sort of situation and especially favored by enemies for whom strength was their most noticeable attribute. She was not disappointed when she sensed he was about to perform the move and so she delivered two quick slashes before using her foot claws to flip clear. She almost didn't make it clear when the Hulk slammed his back into one of the larger pieces of jutting stone that used to be an Institute walkway but another quick back flip stabilized matters nicely. Looking back to the target of the operation, she saw that Surge was back in the fight but was keeping considerable distance between herself and the Hulk as she fired blasts of electricity at him. A wise move considering that, physically, the young Asian woman wasn't that skilled in close quarters combat. Nori had some ability, enough to handle muggers or street thugs, but against anyone with above average training she would stand no chance.

_She is doing well to specifically target the open wounds I created. _She thought as she began to prowl once more around the periphery of the battlefield, _Water conducts electricity and magnifies the damage it is capable of and what is blood but water with blood cells mixed in for coloring. _

However the effect was limited in duration as the gamma powered behemoth's healing ability quickly closed the wounds, leaving no sign that it'd been there to begin with.

"Hey, didn't I smash you already?" Hulk asked recognizing Nori as someone he'd defeated earlier.

"Yeah but I got better!" Surge declared before upping the intensity of her blasts.

"Oh yeah? Let's see you get better from a broken back!" yelled the Hulk as he charged Nori's position with all the subtlety of a charging bull.

A poor move on the Hulk's part since discharging electricity in the form of an offensive attack was not the only way the leader of the New X-Men could apply her mutant gift. By channeling the electrical energy into her body, she could run at superhuman levels for as long as she could maintain the current of energy. As such, no sooner did the Hulk begin his charge then Nori ran around him to attack from the opposite side, leaving a fading trail of crackling electricity in her wake. As fast as the Hulk was with his powerful legs, it took time for him to build up any sort of speed. Give him a stretch of a hundred yards or so and he could probably achieve the necessary level of speeded needed to catch Surge. However with less than thirty yards, Noriko had him beat.

"Rrraaghh!" bellowed the Hulk as he slammed both fists into the ground, causing earthquake-level tremors throughout the immediate area.

It also further broke up the ground around him, forcing Nori to stop running for a moment due to the unstable footing she now had to work with. That was when he struck, kicking a large slab of concrete at the blue-haired girl at speeds just above what a normal human could muster. It was sheer chance that Surge was able to duck down enough to avoid being solidly hit but her shoulder still wound up clipped. The Asian leader screamed out in pain as a bone was no doubt broken and dropped to one knee while her left arm hung limp at her side. Watching the Hulk advance towards the leader of the New X-Men, she concluded that the muscle man intended to inflict severe injuries that surpassed previous ones, no doubt in an effort to keep her down. Both Strong Guy and Monet moved in to block him and seemed to succeed for a time so she moved to help Surge off the battlefield so that Xander could heal her. She was almost inside the mansion when she felt a thunderous impact from behind which stopped her in her tracks.

Strong Guy had apparently hit the Hulk with enough strength for the blow to be felt even from where she was but Guido looked as though he had pushed the limit of his mutant ability absorbing the kinetic energy of the target's punch. Ms. Frost was moving in to face the behemoth with Nightcrawler acting as her back up. She was proven to be mistaken a moment ago when it was shown that the headmistress of the Institute was a decoy so that the teleporter could get into position to relocate the monster of muscle outside the front gates. She wondered for a moment what the point of so small a change but, when the Blackbird that the reinforcements had arrived in fell from the sky like an arrow on top of the Hulk, she understood.

She didn't think it would affect the Hulk but hopefully it would buy time for Xander to heal those that needed to be healed so that they would be ready for the next round of the confrontation.

Entering the mansion, she set Noriko gently down in a chair while Xander used his sword Tenseiga to heal Julian, who'd suffered another shock to his body when the Hulk delivered a punch that connected and would have seriously hurt him had the TK field wrapped around his body. While physiologically there would be no remnant of the strain, psychologically she felt that Keller's self-confidence would be decreased substantially. This she believed would only benefit her teammate as his overconfidence had made him careless during previous battles.

After administering a quick injection of painkillers into Nori's arm so she would not suffer while she waited for Xander to heal her, she turned back in the direction of the battlefield to aid in the defeat of the Hulk.

She turned just in time to see one of the engines of the destroyed Blackbird be thrown at great speed towards the main concentration of people opposing the Hulk.

"KAITEN KENBU ROKUREN!" bellowed a familiar female voice.

Less than a second after the words were spoken a total of six crescent moons made of pure golden energy streaked through the air and intercepted the flaming engine. With a moderate explosion, the sophisticated machine was reduced to so many flaming bits that posed little if any threat to her allies. The source of the attack became clear when a crimson-clad female form dropped from the roof to reveal Chieko, daughter of Lady Tsukiko, granddaughter of Xander.

"For cryin' out **loud**!" exclaimed Chieko without weakening her defensive stance, "I take a little time off to meet with my Mom and what happens? You hold the mother of all free for alls without me!"

"Well, in our defense, we didn't exactly plan for any of this to happen, Chieko," Xander said after delivering a wide slash with the Tenseiga to heal those that remained inside the mansion. "If I'd known the Hulk was going to pay us a visit, I'd have suggested your Mom be here as well. It'd make for a great family activity."

"Sounds great except for the pain involved but I guess that's a given when you're involved." Chieko stated with a snort of contempt, "I don't suppose any of you geniuses actually bothered to think up a plan for dealing with tall, green and pissed over there."

Seeing the Hulk making his way back onto Institute property she immediately took up a supportive position to the left of Chieko.

"Aside from hitting him with everything we got and hope we wear him out before he flattens us? Not really." Xander stated as he sheathed the Tenseiga and unsheathed the Tetsusaiga.

"Typical. Remind me to schedule some strategy and tactics training for tomorrow." Chieko said before a look of concentration fell across her face, "Until then follow my lead and don't screw up, Gramps!"

With that the three of them charged the Hulk head on with blades bared and intent leaving their marks all over the jade giant's body.

_**Ten Minutes Later, The Remains of the Front Courtyard of the Mansion, Xander's P.O.V**_

_Note to self: getting punched by the Hulk __**HURTS!**_ Xander thought as he rose to his feet despite the pain, _Though it'd probably have been worse if I hadn't used the Tetsusaiga to divert most of the power off to the side._

Testing the range of motion for both arms as well as his ability to swing his sword, he found that while it still hurt like a sonuvabitch, it wasn't anything he couldn't cope with. The question was: how long could they cope against the Hulk? If he'd been wary before, he was downright grim now that he'd seen just what kind of damage the big guy could do against veteran X-Men. The only good thing he could find right now was the fact that magic seemed to be a bit harder for the towering titan's healing ability to cope with. When his sword or Chieko's kodachi cut the Hulk, the wounds took longer to heal than the lacerations done by Laura's adamantium claws. However a bit harder didn't mean that he'd be able to end the fight with on good slash because the difference in healing times could be measured in single digit seconds. Still, it was an improvement over how things were going before and he'd take what he could get in a mismatch like this.

Running back to the battlefield, he could see both Chieko and Laura using their speed as well as their agility to dance around the Hulk like deadly predators. The second the Hulk turned his attention to one, the other would strike and when it looked like the brute had figured out the pattern they'd mix it up on him, forcing the guy to start from scratch. However just because they were keeping the hits to a minimum didn't mean they weren't getting hit and, like him, the only reason the girls were still fighting is because they were using every trick there was when it came to taking a hit. They needed a change of tactics but the only thing he could come up with was to use the destructive power of his swords to kick things up a notch. After what he saw, though… seeing the destruction of that world through the Hulk's eyes… he couldn't help but feel like crap every time he thought of seriously hurting the giant. The guy had his girl and his planet reduced to a volcanic wasteland by four people who were supposed to be heroes and damn if he couldn't see where the former Avenger was coming from. If someone had nuked Sunnydale, killing off the Scoobies, he'd go after them no matter who they were and not stop until each of them was either dead or wished they were so.

Still, as far as he knew, Xavier hadn't been in on the big decision to shoot the Hulk into space and trying to punish a guy for something he had no hand in was just plain wrong. Add to that the fact that he had come to consider the residents of the X-mansion people he cared about and there was no way he could just step aside. With that in mind, he knew what he had to do and all he needed was one solid opening to kick things up a notch.

_Cuckoos? Connect me with Laura and Chieko, if you please. _He thought at what he hoped was loud enough to reach them.

_You're connected._ Came thought three-in-one thoughts of Celeste, Phoebe and Mindee.

_Chieko? Laura? When I give the word both of you target his legs and then get clear._ He thought as he began to channel youki into the fang of Inutaisho, _I'm going to drop the hammer on this guy._

Feeling acknowledgement in his mind, he waited until it seemed like the green giant was seriously getting pissed and then gave the mental signal the girls had been told to wait for. With a final bit of deadly dancing they both targeted the Hulk's legs, obviously aiming for spots that would hinder the monster's ability to move. He waited until he was absolutely certain that they wouldn't get hit and then unleashed the technique capable of vaporizing a hundred demons in a single stroke.

And the Hulk wouldn't even know it was coming because there'd be no calling out of the attack this time.

It had been something Chieko had drilled into his head during the last few training sessions they'd held before she'd gone to meet up with Tsukiko. While it was true that declaring the technique out loud added some additional power to the technique, it by no means meant that the move couldn't be executed without speaking.

_Time to see if silence is truly golden._ He thought as he finished his vertical slash and unleashed the power of the Wind Scar.

What happened next was something truly amazing to behold as a true tsunami of golden energy surged forth from the blade and barreled down on the Hulk's position like a freight train that was out of control. As fast as it was going, the only warning the target of his attack had that he was in danger was the golden light of the attack just before it hit and **BOY** did it hit hard. Yet, at the same time, there was resistance and he knew it was from the combo of the Hulk's unnatural durability and fury-fueled strength. It was a contest of power and he considered a good sign that the brute wasn't shrugging it off right away but he also knew that his attack would give way soon. As powerful as it was, his enemy was stronger than the demons it'd been used on to gain the reputation of killing a hundred demons in one blow. This was proven scant seconds later when, with a mighty bellow of rage and defiance, green hands ripped the wave of energy in half, sending the two pieces to either side. The ground that had been superheated by his attack glowed orange for a time but it quickly cooled down. Sadly it looked like the Hulk's fury was doing the exact opposite as the look of rage on the big guy's face was getting decidedly more heated.

Still, the attack wasn't a total loss as he could see burns and more than a little damage to the Hulk's armor.

Too bad this only pissed the jade giant off.

"You're really starting to piss me off kid." Said the Hulk as he began to advance towards the young daiyoukai.

"Ya don't say." Quipped his mouth before he could more carefully choose his words.

This disrespect didn't go over well with the Hulk and, with a surprising burst of speed, the giant was within striking distance. Bringing up the Tetsusaiga into a guard position to deflect or divert the power behind the blow he knew was coming, he was shocked beyond words when out of nowhere the brute executed a front kick that succeeded in knocking the weapon from his hands. He had barely managed to shake off this shock before the mammoth of a man grabbed a hold of him, slammed him into the ground hard enough to make him see stars and then threw him through a window. Hitting the ground, he could feel his body hitting several solid yet breakable things before coming to a stop and leaving him to argue with his body about whether or not to get back up for more. As his healing factor went to work healing his wounds, the world began to slip into focus and his mind got clearer and clearer. Once it got good enough for him to make the attempt, he slowly rose to his feet and, upon looking around, he realized that he'd gone clear through whatever building he'd been thrown into and wound up in the Institute cemetery. He barely had enough time to comprehend that before a steel grey form came flying through the hole he'd created and, on reflex, he moved to catch it without hurting it.

"Cessily?" he gasped recognizing the person he caught as his New X-Men teammate.

She looked out of it based on the moaning but he didn't think it was anything she couldn't shake off if given the time. Seeing Xavier coming towards the two of them, he knew the Hulk wouldn't be far behind and he wasn't disappointed when the hole he'd made became an improvised doorway as the Hulk came through.

"The two of you'd better get outta my way. I ain't leaving until Xavier's suffered as much as I have." Hulk said, moving towards the man who'd by now reached the residents of his mansion/school.

"Y-you want to…talk about **suffering**?" Cessily said as she shapeshifted out of his grip until she was once again on her own two feet, "Look around you.

"All of these gravestones belong to people who lived here, who fought for the dream Professor Xavier had, and died to try and make this word a better place," Mercury explained with her voice becoming more passionate as time went on. "Do you have any idea what it feels like to be a mutant? Do you have any idea what it's like to have the place you call home turned into a goddamned **WARZONE** because a group of people who hate you for what you are attack it?

"If it hadn't been for Xander, the number of tombstones here would be doubled!" Cessily said, beginning to cry a bit. "Most of the students that live here now didn't come here to become X-Men. They came to find someplace safe and to learn to control powers that scare the hell out of them or are more of a curse then a blessing!"

That was about all she was able to get out before her emotions made speaking too difficult to do.

"She's right, Hulk. If you think anyone living here at the Institute has it easy, you don't know what you're talking about," he said taking over while putting a comforting hand on Mercury's shoulder. "In case you've forgotten, after M-Day over ninety percent of the mutants on the planet have lost their powers. That makes this place a target for every mutant hating fanatic out there looking to engage in a little murder.

"Can you imagine what it's like when that much hate and murderous intent is directed your way?" he asked before stepping right up in front of the Hulk, "As for Xavier, I personally think he's suffering enough as it is. From what I've heard, the guy is one of the most compassionate and caring people on the planet. Problem is there's a flip side to that; it also means that he probably feels responsible for every death that's happened since he founded this school as well as the X-Men. After all, a leader can't help but feel responsible for what happens to the people he's responsible for, whether there was anything he could have done to prevent it or not.

"Add to the cold shoulders and looks of betrayal he's been getting from some of the founding X-Men and I don't see much difference between here and hell," He said before looking the giant square in the eyes. "Do you?"

For a time the two of them just stood there, looking at each other, staring into each other's eyes like a superhero staring match. Eventually, though, much to his surprise, Hulk was the one to turn around and walk away.

"Hm. Despised by the people who are like family to you and stuck with a crosshairs on your back that you can't take off," Hulk said, turning his head to look back at them. "Sounds like hell to me."

With that the Hulk propelled himself into the air, quickly becoming nothing more than a green speck on the horizon before disappearing altogether. The big guy was still pissed and ready to deal out some revenge but apparently he'd decided that Xavier had already been dealt his punishment in the most painful way possible.

"I'm glad that's over!" he exclaimed as he released all the tension in his body and sat himself down on the ground, "Don't know what I would've done if he'd called what I said a pile of shit and kept coming."

"Your words were well chosen Alexander even if they rang painfully true for me." Xavier said walking up to him with a haunted look on his face, "Your insight into the world and into those around you is remarkable. However, as someone who has also been blessed with great insight from time to time, I give you this piece of advice: be careful where you look, for you may not like what you see."

With that the man known as Professor X, founder of the X-Men, walked back into the school leaving trouble and still hurting inu daiyoukai behind.


	14. A Turning Point Reached

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material contained herein. They belong to their respective creators and associated companies. I make no profit off of this whatsoever. I write because there are those that enjoy reading my work and because I find it fun to write fanfic. Therefore I would appreciate it if the creators and companies didn't file a lawsuit or three against me. I can assure them that no matter what you get from me it won't even come close to covering your lawyer fees.

_**Somewhere, Three Days Later, Early Morning**_

"You have news?" she asked from her place at the center of the room.

"Yes, your highness," replied the seemingly unremarkable man. "I apologize for the delay but the target you designated has some skill in the area of evading pursuit."

"Of course. She always had a way of disappearing and staying that way when she didn't want to be found," she replied as she recalled the memories of the past. "However this time she has something I want and I will not stop until I have it."

Indeed it had been almost three weeks ago that she'd been summoned to a meeting and she had been somewhat annoyed since it had required some of her more unique excuses to slip away from her assignment without turning heads. She had been all set to let the agent responsible know just how annoyed she was but had chosen to let the man speak first so that she could tear down his reasons in the process of voicing her displeasure.

Her decision had inadvertently saved the agent from any and all punishment for summoning her.

**She** had been found and there was irrefutable evidence to suggest that something… someone… she had long thought lost was still alive. She had refused to believe it at first but when the agent provided the results of tests using scientific equipment both local and further abroad, she could not dismiss the findings so easily. Still… she had known that enemies still walked amongst the others, although they were careful to keep themselves hidden and safe from anything more than suspicion born of instinct. She had known that this could all be a plot on their part meant to elevate themselves or pull her down from her position of power. Thus she used her assignment to gain entry to the place where the person she sought was currently residing and tried to see with her own eyes whether what she had been told was truth or lies. Sadly, despite her eyes taking in all they could see, she had failed to see her target and, despite her own desires, she could not endanger the overall plan by behaving oddly among the enemy. All depended on the enemy not realizing what was going on right in front of their eyes until she and the others chose to reveal the truth to them.

That had had left her with only one last option: Find **HER**.

Find the one that deceived her, **betray her,** and taken her precious one from **HER**.

"Where is she?" she asked Mr. Unremarkable returning her thoughts to the here and now.

"She has travelled to Cleveland, your highness." Mr. Unremarkable replied as professionally as a soldier. "We believe that she intends to use the lesser Hellmouth present there to conceal her location."

"Indeed, and were this five years ago it would indeed have been sufficient to hide her from us." A victorious smile blossomed on her face, "However we have learned much since she left us. Take your squad to Cleveland and capture her. Use whatever means you desire without endangering the operation. Also be sure to avoid injuring her head for I want her to be able to think and speak clearly. She must be able to answer my questions."

"Understood, my lady," replied Mr. Unremarkable before he bowed and left the building.

_Soon you and I will meet for the first time in eighteen years._ She thought with a malicious smile replacing the victorious one, _This time however you will have not my favor but my vengeance, my dear._

_**The Xavier Institute, Classroom 1A, Emma Frost's P.O.V**_

_Time to broach the subject with the rest of the group. _She thought as she watched the last of the faculty entered the room closing the door behind them.

It had been weeks since the young man had first come through the door with X-23 and since then he had gained the respect of virtually every mansion resident. He had been instrumental in keeping the number of casualties down to a bare minimum and had even managed to restore the powers of some of the students using one of his swords. True, some of the students whose powers were more a problem than a good thing were antagonistic towards him but their anger was lessened somewhat by the fact that they could remain with their friends at the Institute. In any case, with the threats to the Institute only getting greater as time went on, a capable leader was needed for the New X-Men if they were to hold the fort while she and the others were away.

Sadly that leader was not Surge.

While she might one day become a fine leader, it was clear that the stress was beginning to affect her. Her temper was shorter to the point of getting reckless and, unless she was mistaken, Nori seemed to be deferring to Xander's lead more with every battle. Indeed if things continued on this path it'd be a matter of a month or two before the inu daiyoukai became the leader of the New X-Men in all but name. In her mind it'd be better to have him assume leadership now rather than risk the confusion that would arise if Surge and Sesshomaru wound up giving conflicting orders during a crisis.

"Alright, I'm glad you all could make it to this meeting." Cyclops said from behind the desk at the front of the class, "I believe that we need to re-evaluate the status of the New X-Men in light of past events."

"Oh?" asked Logan, no doubt deliberately trying to annoy Scott.

"Yes. Since M-Day they've repelled Stryker's Purifiers, defeated Nimrod, saved one of their own from The Facility, rescued their fellow students from Belasco and recently managed to hold their own against the Hulk." Her lover replied ignoring the baiting his teammate was attempting.

"Hell, we should just retire now. Maybe shoot the kids into space, let them deal with Vulcan." Logan said with mock awe in his voice.

"Logan, your sensitivity is staggering." She said with some chill in her voice.

"There are sixty students at the Institute. That's a little over a third of the mutant population in the world, right here," Cyclops said, continuing with his statement, "And we've failed them in every possible way. The only reason that number hasn't been cut in half is because of one lucky break that isn't going to come again. If it weren't for Xander they would have died without us getting to know them. **Really** getting to know them.

"That ends now. Today. Their protection is our imperative," the leader of the X-Men said with passion in his voice. "Because if everything Hank has been telling me is true, they all could be the last generation of X-Men."

"All the more reason to strengthen our defenses where we can," she stated as she took the first step in her plans. "One of the first things I believe we should do is to reassess who should lead the New X-Men."

"Well, let's not be too hasty. I'll admit that Surge has made a few mistakes but I still think she'd make a great leader for the team," Cyclops said, sounding like he really thought Nori would get the hang of being a leader soon.

"Perhaps one day but can we truly wait that long?" she asked, countering his point with a dose of reality. "The dangers facing her team are increasing, Scott. You've stated yourself that each foe the New X-Men have faced has been stronger than the last. Can we really risk Surge not being up to the challenge when the next threat emerges?"

No one in the room liked to think about it, least of all her considering her past, but ignoring it wouldn't make it go away.

"I suppose you have an idea of who should replace Surge?" Beast asked with his usual curiosity.

"Yes. I believe that Xander should be given leadership of the New X-Men." She stated with confidence and resolve. "He has their respect and has proven himself on many occasions since arriving at the Institute."

"I'll admit Harris is full of surprises and can handle himself in a fight," Shadowcat, said donating some reason to the discussion, "but the only reason he even came to the Institute was to help Laura settle in and find a way to become human again. The first part's almost done and he's accepted his new form so part two is no longer an issue. What if he wants to head back to Sunnydale with Buffy in a few weeks?"

"Things have changed since he first got here. He's made friends, forged bonds and now that he knows the danger they are in I don't believe he'll find it so easy to leave it behind," she pointed out, efficiently utilizing her armory of information. "The reason he's interested in returning to Sunnydale is because his friends live there and he believes he's needed there. Now he has friends here and knows that his abilities would help a great deal here at the Institute. Thus the question he must answer is: where is he needed more?"

"I've read the report Husk submitted on what happened in Sunnydale. If the place really is sitting on top of a doorway to hell and has more demons there than anywhere else, I'd say it definitely needs defending." Cyclops pointed out while turning his head to look at her, "If the worst happens here it's just us but if things go bad in Sunnydale, the whole world loses."

"Not necessarily. How many times has it been that the only thing that kept the world spinning were the X-Men being in the right place at the right time doing the right thing?" she asked rhetorically as she gazed about the room. "While I agree that Sunnydale must be guarded, I believe Ms. Summers and the rest of the 'Scoobies' back in Sunnydale could perform that task sufficiently well. With her new powers, I dare say she could handle most threats quite easily."

None could say that the powers of one Elizabeth Summers were not impressive given how she fared against Belasco and the Hulk. Her ability to transform her body into whatever the situation required made her a difficult foe to defeat. Indeed, given what she knew of the girl's abilities before her encounter with the government operation, there would likely be no demon on the Hellmouth that'd be able to match her.

"You've made your point, Emma. I'll discuss it with Xander but it'll have to be his choice." Scott said with that tone of voice that made it clear he wouldn't budge.

"Of course, Scott. I wouldn't have it any other way." she replied, making it look as though that had been her intention all along.

Logan snorted, making it clear he didn't believe it for a second.

Fortunately for him she didn't care what he thought and would proceed with her plans regardless of what he thought. With Scott to meet with Xander to offer him the position as leader of the New X-Men, it was left to her to tilt things a little further in her favor by having a word with Surge to make her less resistant to the idea of handing over the position to the young daiyoukai. It wouldn't take much, considering how little she wanted the role at the moment, but a little nudge could make all the difference.

"Leadership aside, I want you to run the team through some more scenarios in the Danger Room Logan." Scott said, looking at the man codenamed Wolverine. "Mix it up, throw in a few surprises and if Xander is there make sure to give him a handicap that'll force the others to pick up the slack."

"No problem. I got a few ideas that should keep'em on their toes." Logan stated with a smile that did not bode well for the New X-Men.

_**The Forests Behind the Xavier Institute, Three Hours Later, Chieko's P.O.V**_

"TOO SLOW!" Chieko yelled before delivering a slash-kick combo that sent Xander to the ground.

Landing on the ground, she sheathed her kodachi and watched as her grandpa got back to his feet while holding one hand to the bleeding cut on his shoulder. They had been training for five hours a day ever since the day after the Hulk left and in that time she had pulled out every trick she knew to force him to improve. After her discussion with her mother, she knew that she needed to work harder than ever before to bring Xander up to the level of a true daiyoukai lord. She hadn't heard anything new from her mother's agents concerning the status of the demonic factions in the USA but that didn't mean that they weren't up to something. If she and her mother had taken notice of the reincarnated Sesshomaru, it was a certainty that every other demon in the country worth remembering knew of his existence. For the time being she figured they'd sit back and wait to see what Xander would do but that would only last for so long. Eventually they would either consider him a threat to be eliminated or a power to gain control of for use against their enemies.

Neither outcome could be permitted as far as her mother was concerned.

However, in order for Xander to be able to survive the coming assassination attempts and have the ability to refuse offers without falling victim to reprisals, he needed to become much stronger. At the moment she'd rate him as being strong enough to give your average youkai warrior a serious fight but if the fool actually threw down against a lord or a large force, he'd wind up painted with his own blood. His moves lacked precision and while he had the occasional flare up of skill thanks to the past life instincts living in his mind, he still had a ways to go. Seeing the look in his eyes, though, she knew he'd eventually make it to where he needed to be so long as the resolve she saw burning within him didn't give out.

"Let's take a break, Xan," she said as she moved over to where she'd left a lunch box for the two of them. "Thirty minutes of rest then we go for another two hours before calling it a day. Take that time to think on what you did wrong today."

"The only thing I did wrong was agree to a handicap when fighting you." Xander grumbled as he sat down to eat.

"Quit your griping. You already have power but you don't have the skill!" she snapped after she finished swallowing a morsel of food. "Sooner or later you're going to fight with someone stronger, faster and more skilled than you are. Working to beat me with a handicap will prepare you for moments like that."

He didn't have a reply to that. Instead he just dug into his food like your typical American teenager.

She knew that her mother would want him to learn etiquette and protocol for when he met the youkai aristocrats but that wasn't her job and everyone knew it. So until a suitable instructor was chosen, she'd handle the combat end of things so that he'd be able to kick the ass of those pureblood idiots her mother had to put up with.

That wouldn't be what the etiquette teacher or her mother would want but, being the youngster that he was, she was confident that sooner or later someone would say something to earn themselves a beating. She just hoped that she'd be there to witness it in person. That or maybe someone would have the insight to record it somehow so she'd be able to watch it later for laughs.

It was five minutes later that she picked up a scent on the wind that snared her attention. Taking two quick sniffs, she identified it as Cyclops, leader of the X-Men, and the man that had a codename that fit his way of thinking quite nicely. She couldn't fault the man's skills in combat, he'd definitely mastered his mutant power, but the idiot was so morally inflexible so as to be annoying sometimes. While it was morally admirable to refuse to use lethal force against an enemy, strategically it was unwise to tie one's hands unnecessarily by adhere to what society deemed acceptable. Society, in her mind, was fickle and changed its preferences on a yearly basis, so it was useless to try and keep up with what they considered to be 'good' or 'bad'. All you could do was build your own code of honor and live by it with every fiber of your being, no matter what end it brought you to.

It was a little while later that the idiot emerged from the forest and, judging from the look on his face as well as the fact that he looked right at Xander, meant he needed to talk to her student about something serious. It was probably something Institute related and while it'd be kinda fun to make it harder for him to do it, she decided it'd be better to get it out of the way swiftly so that it didn't interfere with training.

"Looks like One Eye has something boring to talk about," she said as she finished the last of her lunch and got to her feet "I'll be back in a bit and you'd better be ready to do better when I get back to do better than that piss poor effort you've put on so far today."

With those words she left the clearing that he'd been using for her combat lessons and decided that a quick run through the forest was in order. She'd give the two half an hour before coming back. Hopefully by the time she got back the air wouldn't be quite so boring and stuffy. Such an atmosphere made for some pretty lousy training and would only ruin what little progress her pseudo-grandfather had made thus far today.

As she ran along, she tried to enjoy her romp through the woods and, thanks to the fact that the Institute was a fair distance for the nearest town, she could barely smell the pollution. It was more like it used to be before humans started to get obsessed with making more than they needed when the air was clear and nature more dominant. She'd been quite young at the time, at least as far as youkai measure age, but she did remember how much she enjoyed running through the woods feeling the air on her face. The simple joy of running where she would and basking in the feeling of freedom it induced in her.

However, as man began to grow both in intellect as well as in numbers, the number of places she could run with true freedom shrunk. While there were a few places where humans did not commonly tread, they weren't easy to get to and often it was considered something of a treat to leave home for a place where youkai still held some dominance. Being able to run in the forest behind the Institute had been one of the perks to her assignment as Sesshomaru's trainer since she was able to do it whenever she wanted. Well… that and she didn't have to worry about those old farts back home constantly harping on about how **inferior** she was and how they longed for a **true** youkai ruler to serve. Just thinking about those fossils pissed her off and so she immediately banished such thoughts from her head lest they ruin her run through the wild.

By the time that twenty minutes had passed she had already turned around and began to make her way back to the clearing where she hoped that Cyclops no longer was. As the trees parted, she was thankful to not find one Scott Summers there waiting for her but there was still something left behind, judging by the look on Xander's face. The young daiyoukai had an introspective look on his face as though he had been given something important to consider and was placing all his attention on it.

_What could Summers have talked to him about?_ She thought before shrugging with indifference, _Whatever! Time to get this training session back on track._

With that thought she dashed across the distance between the two of them and delivered a roundhouse kick to his head that sent him tumbling to the other side of the clearing. Crossing her arms, she waited for him to recover and wasn't disappointed when he immediately sat up holding the back of his head with an angry look on his face.

"What the hell was that for!?" he asked angrily as he winced slightly from the bruise her kick had probably created.

"Ahou! You need to be more alert!" she said in a superior manner as a smile grew on her face. "You never know when an enemy will attack and some of them will only need one clear shot to end your life. Now get off your ass and let's see if you can at least put up a decent fight with someone you can see coming."

With that their training resumed.

_**The Danger Room, The Next Day, Morning, Xander's P.O.V**_

_I hope I'm doing the right thing._ Xander thought as he waited for Logan to hit the switch in the control room.

It might have been almost a full day since Cyclops had chatted with him. Almost a full day since he'd been asked to take over as leader of the New X-Men. After hearing the offer he'd been shocked but thankfully he had also been able to keep his mind together enough to tell Mr. Summers that he'd think about it. Too bad he'd thought about it so hard that he'd wound up getting his ass handed to him worse than ever by Chieko. In the end the hanyou had called the rest of the training off since it was obvious that his mind was no longer where it needed to be. Not looking a gift horse in the mouth, he'd returned to his room and changed out of his training clothes, all the while thinking about the role that was being held out in front of him.

Ever since he'd learned about the hidden side of the world, he'd been more of a follower than a leader. Whether it was because of the constant physical and mental abuse from his parents or simply his less than glowing performance at school, he'd always had doubts about just what he could accomplish. Jesse and Willow had helped make sure he wasn't a complete doormat but with the doubts whispering in his mind, he'd reflexively deferred to those around him believing them to be better suited to making the big decisions. As time passed and the Scoobies managed to get through more tight spots together, his confidence grew as he realized that he was doing things, fighting things that would have left Tony begging for his life. He felt like he was truly leaving his past and the doubts that went with it behind him as he reinvented who he was from the inside out.

_Though I didn't see the whole Sesshomaru thing coming. _He thought as he looked down at one of his daiyoukai hands.

Still, for all the weirdness it had brought with it, he found himself mostly liking his new form and all the benefits that came with it. While not having power hadn't been too big of an issue for him when it came to fighting the good fight, there was no denying what he'd accomplished thanks to having some serious mojo at his fingertips. If it hadn't been for his Sesshomaru powers the kids on that bus would be dead, Laurie, who had returned home to recover from her trauma, would be dead and others would have died if he hadn't been there to help the New X-Men on their adventures. It'd even helped him to save Buffy from those government bastards who'd captured her with the intent to slice her up like a frog during biology class. He shuddered when he thought about what might have happened had he never his powers and it was mostly fears like those that had kept him from rejecting the position of New X-Men leader outright. In the hours that had followed he'd wandered about the Institute before settling down in a nice spot between the roots of a tree in the back yard.

It had been there that Buffy had found him and had the **nerve** to compare him to Deadboy!

In the end he'd explained to her what was going on and, in the mother of all shocks, she actually came right out and said that she thought he should go for it. He immediately brought up Sunnydale and how she as well as the others might need his help fighting the demons but she countered that with her new powers she could handle herself. In a moment of rare maturity she even stated that for all the dangers that the Hellmouth had to offer, the people in the Institute had it just as bad, if not a bit worse. He couldn't disagree with that because, while there had never been a shortage of Big Bads in Sunnydale, only the end of the year baddies had the power to inflict property damage like the villains the New X-Men had faced so far. He'd then tried to point out that the Institute residents were plenty powerful and wouldn't need his help but the moment the words left his mouth he knew he'd made a mistake. The former Slayer had told him how useless the O.N.E operatives had been from all she'd heard and how the X-Men had screwed up on more than one occasion. In her mind the Institute needed someone like him to keep things from falling apart when the big shots dropped the ball.

Then, of course, she teased him about how he'd miss a certain someone if he left.

He had not even been allowed to make a counter argument before she'd walked off with a smug smile on her face.

After a little more pondering he'd decided to have a talk with the person who'd be affected the most if he accepted Cyclops' offer: Surge. When he'd revealed to her the topic of his discussion, she'd first been angry as it was no doubt a blow to her pride to hear that someone else had been approached for her job. However when he made it clear that he wouldn't accept the job if she really wanted to keep it and would tell Cyclops to have more faith in her, she seemed less sure of what precisely she wanted. The look on her face told her one thing and the enhanced senses allowed him to figure out the rest. In a way she was a lot like Buffy when it came to her role as the Slayer. Nori was in a role that she both wanted but felt woefully unprepared for and didn't have enough time to cope with all the cold truths that came with the job of leader. She put on a brave front but the cracks had started to be obvious for all to see and if one more thing happened on her watch, she'd snap.

It was right then that he'd decided he'd accept the role, if only to take the too large burden off the shoulders of Nori, who'd only be hurt the longer she kept it. Thus, before turning in for the night, he'd gone to Mr. Summers and formally accepted the position as leader of the New X-Men.

He still wasn't sure if it was such a good fit but it was too late to go back on his word.

"Alright, kiddies, it's time to get this warm up underway." Wolverine's voice came over the speakers that were installed in the walls of the room, "Stay sharp."

Settling into a combat position, he prepared himself for whatever the senior X-Man was going to throw at them.

"Oh, and just in case the rest of you don't know, Cyke just named Xander your new team leader." Logan stated as the constructs for the simulation began to take form, "So do whatever he tells you to, okay?"

Shock seemed to pretty much be the most common feeling experienced by the rest of the New X-Men, save Surge, who he'd informed, and Laura, who kept her emotions under strict control.

Then they no longer had any time to think about how quickly the status quo had changed as they found themselves facing a team of Stryker's Purifiers, all of them armed with weapons of one sort or another.

"Let's rock and roll, people!" he said as he charged the pseudo-Purifiers with the rest of the New X-Men falling in behind him.

_**One Week Later, The Xavier Institute, Lower Levels, Buffy's P.O.V**_

_Something big is going on. I know it!_ She thought as she snuck around the lower levels of the Institute.

It had been four hours since she'd been in the Danger Room, trying to increase her fine control over her powers, when all at once the lights blew and the simulation shut down in a messy way. It had taken her twenty full minutes to get the manual release on the doors to work and then use her powers to amplify her strength enough to force them open so she could get out. She'd immediately gone to find out what the hell happened but all she got was a brush off by that ass who shared her last name and the sight of all the old X-Men rushing off to the hanger where their planes were. However they had gotten back about ten minutes ago and she could tell from the way they were acting that something important had happened. So with answers being what she wanted, she had decided to use her powers to be extra sneaky and eavesdrop on what they were talking about.

She just wished that she didn't have to eavesdrop as smoke in the ventilation ducts.

It still felt unnatural when she was in this state and she was always afraid that something would happen to literally blow her to pieces. Still, if she wanted the information, this was the best way to get it without being spotted.

Looking through the grating, she could see a number of screens arrayed out in front of Frost and Cyclops, showing what appeared to be news broadcasts from many different television stations. The story seemed to be some sort of disaster based on the demolished buildings and hurt people she could see behind the reporters speaking into their microphone.

"—tragedy last night in Cooperstown, Alaska, when a quiet town became anything but. A night no one in Alaska is likely to ever forget," spoke the anchor on the only screen with its volume up high enough for her to hear. "At approximately 10:20pm last night, local residents were rocked by a series of explosions that some believed to be earthquakes. But as they fled their homes, they realized it was much worse. They had come under fire by a private army the likes of which most government militas rarely encounter. Their mysterious goal in Cooperstown?

"The cold-blooded execution of nearly every child in this town. An almost biblical punishment… with no discernible motive. Police are working hard to verify the identity of these attackers, as the bodies of several were found on the scene." Spoke the anchorwoman as tarp-covered bodies and the aftermath of destruction played across the screen. "Though it is unclear at this point who, in fact, killed them. Several locals have described a fight between two forces while others claim a group of superheroes arrived in the aftermath of the battle to help them get to safety. But at this time the truth about what happened in Cooperstown last night remains a mystery."

_An… an entire town… all those kids… _she thought as the shock and horror kept anything more from emerging from her mind, _Who could do such a thing?!_

"They didn't find the bodies of those Marauders at the scene or are they covering it up?" Cyclops asked as he took in the images.

"It's entirely possible Sinister sent someone back to clean up his mess. It's not as if he wants the outside world on his tail any more than we do." Frost pointed out as professionally as possible.

"True… but it doesn't feel right. These are the Marauders, not the Marines." Scott said pointing out a flaw in his lover's reasoning, "You saw those bodies…they'd been abandoned."

"Let's just be content this disaster isn't being laid at our feet for the moment and worry about the why later." Emma said trying to derail that line of thought.

"Good point. Did you make that call?" asked the leader of the X-Men, not elaborating any further on the matter.

"Of course. Neither of them were happy about it but they'll be here shortly." Emma replied promptly while giving nothing away.

"Good. We need to move fast if we're going to recover this child," stated one of the founding members of his team, "…so we don't have time for turf wars."

Her mind was abuzz with all the information she had just acquired but she knew for certain now just why the adults had been in such a tizzy. An entire town and virtually all of its children had been wiped out and the cause appeared to be a child was the focal point of it all. She then heard the doors open and spotted one Charles Xavier walking in and took that as her cue to leave because if half the stories she heard were true then she didn't want to hear Cyclops VS Professor X round twenty. With that in mind she willed her smoke-like form back through the ventilation ducts until she flowed back out into the hallway and returned to what she considered her normal form.

"Very impressive, Elizabeth. You're growing more skilled in your abilities every day." Came a voice she did not expect, causing her to spin around to confirm what her ears were telling her.

Standing not ten feet away was none other than Emma Frost and, out of surprise more than anything else, she looked back at the door that led to a room where she thought she'd left the woman.

"In terms of audible noise you were quite silent, my dear, but to a telepath your mind might as well have been screaming at the top of its lungs." Ms. Frost said with a neat division between a compliment and a position of arrogant superiority, "I informed Cyclops and once I sensed you about to leave the room, I planted an image in your mind that I was doing nothing while in fact I left the room to have a little chat with you."

"About what?" she asked even though she had a pretty good idea.

"I would like you to keep what you learned moments ago to yourself for the time being. Let Cyclops or myself be the one to inform the rest of the Institute." Frost said with surprising seriousness and something else in her voice.

She thought on that request and knew it'd be impossible to keep the truth from the students at the Institute for long, especially considering the story was all over the news. Still, given the number of things that'd happened to this school so far, it'd be serious blow to morale, especially seeing as it was so soon after the battle with the Hulk. So while she doubted it'd do much good, she knew what she had to do.

"Alright, but you'd better not wait too long or they'll find out on their own," she said before turning away and heading towards where the emergency ladders to the surface were located.

Once she felt she was far enough away from Frost, another thought came to mind that had her moving towards the ladder at a quicker pace than before. It was the thought of how Xander would likely react once he learned of the massacre up in Alaska. Xander had never been able to tolerate judgment based on prejudice or hatred because it was those two things that had made him and Willow social outcasts in school. Sure, some could argue that he was guilty of the same thing given his feelings towards demons and vampires but unlike humans, those creatures had little say in whether they were good or evil. Giles had made a point of it more than once that, on a metaphysical level, demons were incapable of feeling the range of emotions that kept the majority of humanity from slipping into the darkness and that, in her mind, was what kept Xander from falling into the hypocrite category.

Humans had a choice as to which side of the line they wanted to be on. Demons didn't have that choice.

It was because the people that had attacked Cooperstown had a choice that Xander would feel anger towards them because he wouldn't be able to comprehend how people could willfully commit such horrible crimes. She knew her friend would be driven to seek out those that had committed those crimes and unleash such terrible vengeance down upon them that whether or not they'd walk away in one piece would be debatable.

When her mind produced an image of this, she could not help but shudder at the her mind was producing. Images that were made all the more scary thanks to his inu daiyoukai appearance and the power he now possessed. She had to get to him and be there when he heard what happened, if only to keep him from going completely psycho.

She didn't care what happened to those responsible for the massacre but she did care about what revenge would do to him in the long run.

She didn't want to lose any more of her Xander-shaped friend.

_**Two Hours Later, Sub-Level 2, Laura's P.O.V **_

Her mind was sifting through the tactical data she had on both the Marauders and the Purifiers in anticipation of what was to come. She wanted to be ready for any eventuality during the mission and, despite the argument she knew was coming, she was certain that there was going to be a mission.

The cold, focused look on Xander's face made that absolutely clear.

It had been that way ever since he'd viewed the first few minutes of the news broadcasts detailing the attack on Cooperstown and as soon as the report had ended, the young inu daiyoukai had gathered the entire New X-Men team. It hadn't taken much of a briefing to get the others to fall in behind their leader and once they reached the elevator leading to the sub-levels, the group was completely unified in their intentions. Their immediate goal was to locate the leader of the X-Men Scott Summers and inquire as to what missions were available for them to take on. All had noticed movement and behavior from the senior team so they knew that the headmaster had just about everyone doing something to deal with the current crisis and so they had wanted to do their part as well now that they had a better idea what was going on.

She herself was growing somewhat restless for it was during times such as these that she was usually in the field on a mission. It did not sit well with her to be forgotten or ignored.

Turning the corner, she immediately saw their target and so advanced with the rest of the group towards Scott Summers.

"Loud and clear, Siryn. How's Wolfsbane?" Cyclops asked while holding a communications device to his ear. "Bullets would have hurt more."

"Mr. Summers. We need to talk." Xander said without emotion or any hint of what thoughts were lurking within his head.

"Is it important, Xander? I'm in the middle of something at the moment." Scott stated, obviously unwilling to speak of his activities just yet.

"We know what happened in Cooperstown, Mr. Summers. We also know that ever since that… atrocity was committed you have had been assignments out to all senior X-Men as well as a few allied group members." Xander said choosing to force the issue rather than dance around it, "We want **our** assignments. Now."

"Xander, I understand how you must feel—" Scott began to say before some look from Sesshomaru caused him to pause mid-sentence.

"Do you, Cyclops? You've been an X-Man since the beginning, since you were our age, and it's been quite a number of years since then." Xander said, his tone becoming colder if possible. "Can you really understand what it feels like to learn of such an atrocity? To learn that the people who once tried to kill you are doing it to others? If so, you have a better memory than I thought possible."

"I do remember and I know how it feels like to want to do something in times like these instead of sitting on the sidelines," Mr. Summers stated taking the discussion a bit more serious. "But what's happening right now is larger than anything you or the New X-Men have dealt with before."

"Larger than anything we've dealt with before? It seems my estimation of your memory was incorrect, Mr. Summers." Xander stated with the scent of hostility coming off of him. "The Purifiers, Nimrod, Belasco, The Facility and the Hulk. Those are the sort of threats we've fought against recently. Before I came here I was part of a group that prevented the end of the world on an almost yearly basis. Do you really want to play the rookie card with us?"

In a move of unexpected suddenness Cyclops lashed out with his optic blast, slamming it into Sesshomaru and slamming Xander into the nearest wall.

"I am trying to oversee a war that's being fought on half a dozen fronts." Cyclops bit out, sounding as though he'd had enough of trying to be reasonable.

"If you're fighting a war, we can help." Surge said as she moved to help Xander up off the ground.

"And you will. But it will be where I say so, and when I say so." Summer said in a tone that would tolerate no arguments, "If any of you has a problem with that, you know where the door is."

"You'd do that?" Hellion asked sounding like he didn't believe what he was hearing.

"Yes." Scott replied firmly while pointing an authority-filled finger at the normally arrogant New X-Man, "Then I'd go after you, haul you back here, and chew you out for abandoning your own species in its time of need. They also serve who stand and wait. And when your time comes you may well wish it hadn't."

Cyclops turned around to walk away but stopped when a strong gust of wind hit him in the back. She didn't need to guess where it was coming from because she was standing right next to the source, so some bracing was necessary to keep from being pushed away. Xander was standing once more and judging by the red tinge around the edges of his normally white eyes, he was not in a pleasant mood.

"Very well, Cyclops. For now we will do things your way." Xander said after taking a deep breath in an effort to get a grip on his anger, "Just remember: the devil finds work for idle hands. Wait too long to give us something to do and we may find something to do on our own."

The threat was clear: if Cyclops kept them on the bench too long, the New X-Men would defy him as they had to deal with Nimrod and go off on their own.

One might have thought this would prompt another stare down between the two, one that would likely end with Summers on the ground since Xander would not be struck twice, but instead the leader of the X-Men simply resumed his walk away from the group without saying a single thing. For five minutes no one said or did anything with most of them waiting to see what Xander would do next. For a moment she pondered the reason for his silence and then occurred to her as she realized what she herself was doing with using a fraction of her mind: keeping track of Cyclops.

He was waiting for the leader of the X-Men to exit the hearing range that would allow the older man to pick up on anything they said. This would imply that he was going to do something sooner rather than later concerning the current situation. Two minutes later they both reached the conclusion that Mr. Summers was far enough away to risk speaking of what they intended to do.

"Alright, here's the deal. We'll stick to Cyclops' orders for the time being but we won't be twiddling our thumbs either. We'll be getting ready so **when** they order us out we'll be ready to kick ass," Xander said managing to exude the presence of a leader almost immediately. "Laura and Prodigy will head to the nearest terminals with access to the X-Men database. I want you to go over every scrap of data on the Purifiers and these Marauders, from their members to their weapons. We need a good idea of what both groups can do and what they would do if we showed up on their doorsteps.

"Dust and Mercury I want you to use your powers to keep tabs on what the X-Men are doing but keep out of sight and make yourselves scarce if Ms. Frost enters the room," Sesshomaru said, turning to the two women. "She'd likely pick both of you up in a second and I don't want to tip off the adults that we're making moves of our own."

"The rest of us will use the Danger Room to go through the tougher programs with the Purifiers and Marauders as the main baddies." Alexander turned to Elixir, "I'll need you in the control room, Josh, so the programs can be shut down the second they get too hot to handle. You've all got your assignments now. Let's get to work."

With that the prescribed teams went in the direction they needed to in order to accomplish their assignments. Falling into stride beside Prodigy, she resumed sifting through the information she already had on their enemies and began constructing strategies using the various abilities of the New X-Men members as strategic resources. At first glance she knew it would be difficult no matter who they wound up going up against but, as she continued to think, the probability of success without casualties rose.

So long as Xander maintained his self-control she had confidence that they would accomplish the mission.

She was sure of it.

_**Ten Hours Later, A Rooftop Across From a Church, Washington, D.C**_

_**Xander's P.O.V**_

"Well this has been a blast!" came Buffy's sarcastic voice to his right as they knelt behind the wall that ringed the roof they were on, "Twelve churches complete busts. Let's hope thirteen is good luck rather than bad."

"You didn't have to come, you know," he said with some annoyance at the young woman who'd stowed away when he'd teleported them to Washington DC.

"What and miss you pulling a Mission Impossible? Not a chance." Buffy said with a friendly smile. "Besides, I didn't want to be the one to get hit with the shit storm this little stunt is going to set off when Cyclops finds out."

"We gave him eight full hours to give us something to do," he said, defending his choice to bypass the chain of command. "For me that's a new world record when it comes to waiting."

"True," Buffy agreed before both of them peeked over the top of the wall with Laura. "So what're we looking at over there?"

"Seven Purifiers on the outside perimeter, all armed with anti-mutant weaponry." Laura replied with her skills helping her answer. "Two guards on the upper level, no weapons. The side entrance is the one we want; it's the most heavily guarded."

"Wow." Spoke yet another unexpected but welcome addition to their team.

It was something he hadn't liked but had been unable to say anything against. Both Dust and Prodigy had backed out of the mission when some of the other New X-Men started expressing some rather bloodthirsty desires when it came to the Purifiers. Elixir had backed out because he had been concerned that he wouldn't be able to keep a level head being so close to people like the one who had nearly killed his ex-girlfriend. Fortunately, though, there had been enough non-team members around that'd been willing to fill the empty slots that it hadn't mattered much. He'd made a personal note to keep an eye on them since they weren't used working with Armor, Pixie and Anole but, given, that two of the three had managed to survive Limbo, he was hopeful that they'd be able to take care of themselves.

"And we want to bust into through the most heavily guarded spot because…?" Buffy asked sounding like they hadn't thought their plan through.

"Basic rule of guarding a place, Buff': place most of your guys in front of the place you want to make sure no one gets into." he replied as he used his own youkai eyes to confirm Laura's appraisal of things. "Alright people, we want to take down the guards on the side entrance quick and clean with as little noise as possible. Mercury and Laura will sneak as close as they can to the entrance and then wait. When Surge and Hellion open up on the guards, move in and take down the ones they miss in the initial barrage. Once the last of them are down the rest of us will move in and enter the building. Let's do this, people."

With those words Laura and Cessily made their way down to the ground below and, while being careful not to cast any unnatural shadows, arrived quickly at their designated spots. Once he was satisfied that their approach hadn't been noticed, he nodded to the two long range team members and soon afterwards electricity and telekinetic power shot down towards their targets. Within three minutes all of the Purifiers who'd been guarding the targeted entrance were down and while Mercury's targets were likely alive, he was sure that Laura's were dead. While progress had been made that the former weapon of The Facility did not always make lethal force her first option, it was still in her to do it. As the rest of the team stealthily made their way to their comrades, he began thinking about the rest of the facts that Prodigy and Laura had managed to dig up on the Purifiers. Despite being a group of anti-mutant religious fanatics, some of them were indeed military trained and intelligence reports indicated that the person who'd taken over after Stryker fell was definitely military trained. They'd have to be careful once they got inside and moved quickly to accomplish their mission of gathering info and rescuing the mutant baby if they found it there. He doubted it was there since he couldn't come up with a single reason why the Purifiers would keep it rather than simply kill it on the spot.

Still, they had to check.

It didn't take them long to get inside and once they were sure the immediate area was safe, it was time to move to the next phase of the plan.

"You're up, Anole. I want you to locate and access their security room," he said, turning to Lizard-Boy as he sometimes called the green mutant. "Keep out of sight but when you get there, use it to see if they have the baby. They'll either have a camera on it or on the entrance to the room where it can be found. If you do find the baby send a short message telling us where to look. Like say B2 north if it's in sub-level 2 on the north side of the building. Got it?"

"Got it!" Anole replied before using his mutant powers to blend into the wall and disappear.

"The rest of us are going to search the old fashioned way while doing what we can to keep the Purifiers in the dark," he said, turning to the rest of the team. "I'll take the lead followed by Surge, Rockslide, Hellion, Pixie, Armor, Mercury and then Laura will take up the rear position.

"Surge and Mercury will be our long range fighters. Anything comes at us from in front or behind, you blast it or impale it," he went, telling them what their roles would be. "Rockslide and Armor will be our powerhouses. Anything that can't be stopped by blades or electricity is yours for the smashing. Pixie and Hellion you'll be a combination of ultimate defense and quick escape. If the shit hits the fan, Keller, it'll be your job to throw up a TK shield strong enough to take a pounding long enough for Pixie to teleport us out."

"And what's my job?" Buffy asked sounding a little annoyed at the possibility of being left out.

"If things turn to shit we probably won't have time to go get Anole. We'll need to book real fast." He replied, finding the perfect role for the former Slayer. "When that happens, I'll need you to find the kid and make sure the two of you get out. If anyone's going to get what we need it'll probably be him and that means his escape takes priority so the info can get back to the Institute. Good enough assignment?"

She seemed to mull it over for a minute but eventually a nod of acceptance occurred and he breathed a sigh of relief that he didn't need to reorganize the team to satisfy Buffy's pride.

"Then let's get going." he said before he began to stealthily advance down the hallway while keeping his senses open to everything around him.

For the next hour they proceeded down the various hallways, inspecting rooms carefully as they went for any sign of the mutant baby, taking down any Purifiers they encountered along the way. Thankfully while some of the New X-Men were a bit more vicious than usual, he didn't see any deaths on the side of their enemies. He hoped that each and every one of them went straight to hell for what they'd done and were planning to do but any unnecessary deaths were thankfully avoided. However, thanks to a bit of common sense from Buffy as well as some time to calm down, he realized that he didn't want himself or the others to change because of something Strykers cult did. If they became bloodthirsty murders, if they got stuck in the endless cycle of revenge, it'd be as good as handing victory to the Purifiers because they'd become the very thing the anti-mutant bigots claimed they were. Monsters. Murderers...

Demons.

He wouldn't let that happen. He'd disband the team before he let it go that far.

As he was about to approach an intersection of hallways a scent went past his nose that caused him to freeze while he got a better idea of what he was sensing. Sweat, leather, gun smells and something else he couldn't quite make out. All he knew for sure was that it was getting closer and considering where they were, his money was on a group of Purifiers coming their way. Turning his head to let the others know, he was somewhat surprised to see Laura equally preoccupied but when their eyes met, he instantly knew what was going on.

The enemy was coming up behind them as well.

"Something tells me that we've been found out." he said as he fell into a combat stance.

"Indeed you have, demon." spoke a voice he vaguely remembered from the attack on the Mansion by the Purifiers. "The moment one of our comrades failed to check in we knew we had intruders. When more went silent without any discernible cause, we knew we had mutants in our midst. Cornering you like this was child's play."

"Smart man. I wonder if you're smart enough to realize that anything powerful enough to make a difference against my team will almost certainly bring the entire building down on our heads." He said as he took stock of the Purifiers moving into maximum kill positions.

"Always so arrogant are Satan's children. So convinced of your own superiority," the leader of the group, who looked like Harvey Dent's long lost brother, sneered, "It is time for you to recognize the strength of God's children. Kill them!"

With those words things devolved into a loosely organized skirmish but he considered it a point in his favor that the New X-Men stuck to the assignments he had given them. He and Laura did their best to keep the Purifers away from the main group while Surge and Mercury used the reach their powers gave them to pick off enemies one at a time. Rockslide and Armor became improvised shields when necessary and a strong right hook to the glass jaws of the few who managed to get too close. Fortunately Hellion's TK shield made sure anything that might seriously hurt the powerhouses got blocked and the random spray of Pixie dust confused some of the deadlier of the Purifiers long enough for someone else to take them out. As for Buffy… well, suffice it to say that even with the kid gloves on she was still kicking ass and taking names all over the place.

All in all he had to say that things were going pretty good.

Which, of course, meant things had to take a turn for the worse.

A movement out of the corner of his eye from above was what clued him in and when he looked to see what precisely it was, he broke off his assault on the Purifiers and ran for Pixie. Descending from the ceiling like an angel of death was a woman with impossibly long fingers for claws and a look of anticipation on her face that spoke of much bloodshed to come. He couldn't try one of his own long-range attacks in the midst of the battle or else he'd risk hitting a teammate. Julian was apparently occupied blocking a series of special-looking bullets that had been fired at Surge so he'd be no help. The worst part though was that in this hallway, with so many people in it, he couldn't build up a lot of speed because of the numerous things he had to move around.

It was because of this fact that once he got close enough he jumped forward both tackling as well as shielding Pixie from the newly arrived assassin even as he felt the killer's talons tear into his back. While a part of him could tell that his daiyoukai clothes had kept the sharp fingers from going straight through him, the damage was still significant. As both he and the young woman he rescued hit the ground, he did his best to force the pain he was feeling to the back of his mind. Doing his best to get off her without rolling onto his back, he was dismayed to find out that his bleeding wounds would definitely hinder his movements for the next while.

Considering their current predicament, this was not a good thing, which meant there was one thing he needed to do before it was too late.

"Buffy! GO!" he yelled before pulling the Bakusaiga from its sheath.

_**Beneath Purifier HQ, Ten Minutes Later, Cessily's P.O.V**_

"This isn't looking good, Xander!" she said as she wrapped one of her arms around the body of a cyborg coming at them before willing spikes to shoot out impaling the enemy.

"I know. Just give me a couple of seconds." Sesshomaru as he used his improved swordsmanship to bisect another Reaver. "Once I heal a bit more I'll try to teleport us out of here."

"You can do that? I thought you needed to be out in the open." She said with some surprise but without breaking her battle focus.

"Normally I do but right now I'm about ready to try anything." He said before slicing through a metal tentacle that tried to attack him.

"What about Pixie? She can do a teleport spell." She suggested not wanting to risk teleporting when the one in charge was injured.

"Only as a last resort. She's too new to the mojo. No telling where we'd end up." Alex said as the battle continued to go on around them.

"I think we're already at 'last resort' time, Sesshomaru." she snapped before slashing her blade-shaped hands at an enemy. "We're losing ground and taking serious hits. If don't get out of here now, we're dead."

It wasn't an overstatement of the situation because, while they were getting hits in, they were taking some serious hits as well. Even the most durable among them, like Rockslide, were beginning to feel the pain and once they lost the ability to fight worth a damn, it'd be all over.

"…Fine. Everyone! Rally to me!" he yelled before turning to the girl with the butterfly wings, "Pixie, time to do your mojo and get us out of here."

"B-but…I…I don't know if I can do it…" Pixie stuttered, obviously barely keeping it together amidst the chaos.

"You can do it. Just block everything else out and focus on the spell." Xander said, looking the scared teenage girl right in the eye. "I believe in you."

"And so do the rest of us!" came a voice she hadn't expected to hear for a while.

Barreling through a group of Reavers came Buffy in her metal muscle form and adding more surprise to the moment, she brought friends. The first she recognized as Anole but the other was the last person she'd expected to run into inside a Purifier stronghold: Rictor. She'd seen him a few times around the Institute but, due to the frosty relationship that Cyclops, had with X-Factor Investigations visits were few and far in between. She'd known that Mr. Summers had sent Rictor on a mission and, judging from the fact that the former mutant was wearing a Purifier uniform, it had been to infiltrate the enemy. She cursed herself and her team as she realized that they had blown the friend's cover by forcing him to come to their rescue but decided there was no point in crying over spilt milk.

With the addition of three more fighters to Team Hero they managed to push back the Reavers a couple of feet but she knew it wouldn't last long.

"What're you doing back here, Buffy? You had your orders." Xander said taking the brief respite for what it was.

"Yeah and Vic here saved me some time." Buffy replied before delivering a roundhouse kick to an enemy. "He and Rictor were already on their way down here when I bumped into them."

"Yeah. The baby's not here, Xander." Anole said as he too began to fight to keep the ground they had.

"Then we don't have single reason to stick around." Sesshomaru said before turning to Pixie, "Anytime now would be good, Pixie!"

Seeing a pink glow began to spring forth, she knew the younger mutant was taking the words to heart and if she strained her ears a bit she could hear their ticket to safety muttering words.

"Sihal novarum chinoth…" Pixie chanted as the glow spread to envelop every ally present, "SIHAL NOVARUM CHIN-!"

That was all she was able to make out before the room seemed to twist in on itself before snapping back into place, showing vastly different surroundings than her eyes had taken in beforehand. She didn't have much time to think things through though as she found out suddenly that she was in the air rather than safely on the ground. After gravity had finished slamming her into the ground, she looked about and found herself in someone's backyard and, while the lights in the house were out, she decided it'd be best to make herself scarce. She had made it all of five steps before a groan of pain reached her ears and she when turned to see what the source was, she had to wince a bit at the painful sight before her. Xander had apparently gotten dumped out along with her but instead of landing on the relatively soft grass-covered ground, he'd landed right on a child's plastic playhouse. While it didn't look like the young dai youkai had suffered anything worse than bruises from his landing, she still knew it couldn't have been a pleasant experience.

"Are you alright, Xander?" she asked before realizing what a stupid question that was considering the sight before her.

"I'm find… my pride broke my fall…" Xander replied as he rolled over and began to push himself to his feet, "…something tells me Pixie's teleporting spell needs some fine tuning. Any idea where we are?"

"Other than someone's backyard, your guess is as good as mine." She replied after a brief noise caught her attention, "I think we'd better get out of here before someone sees us."

"Good idea. Lead the way," he said, looking like he might be able to walk or possibly jog if he had to but nothing more stressful than that.

With that in mind she looked about to choose a proper direction and when she spotted what looked like a forested area not too far away, she began to move towards it. Hopefully once they were far enough away from prying eyes they could send out a call for pick up. By now Frost and Summers had to have noticed their disappearance and that meant all she had to do was think loud enough and a ride would be sent to pick the two of them up.

_I hope the others are alright._ She thought reaching the edge of the forest.

_**The X-Jet, Heading Back to the Institute, An Hour and a Half Later, Buffy's P.O.V**_

"Well that could have gone better." Buffy grumped as she tried to shake off the feeling Pixie's teleport spell had left in her body.

She didn't know what she was feeling at the moment but what she did know was that she wanted it gone and the sooner the better. After a long while training with Dr. McCoy in the Danger Room, she had actually begun to get comfortable in her new form but this odd sensation her body was putting out reminded her all too well of what it was like before her new powers showed up. It was like something abnormal was flowing through her veins and she shuddered to think what that meant.

Still, compared to how the New X-Men were, she'd say she got off easy. Rockslide missing part of his gut and Xander having his back cut open highlighted the injury list but the latter's healing ability had already managed to stop the bleeding. She could tell it hurt him to move but he was doing a good job of keeping that fact to himself and she doubted anyone aside from her or Laura knew the truth. Her friend probably thought he had to put off a macho 'this is just a scratch' attitude to keep the spirits of the others up but she could see the truth. Besides, in her mind, he didn't need to put on the tough guy act because, looking about the room, she could tell that none of the others were too shaken up by what they'd been through. Maybe it was because none of them were too badly banged up or maybe it was because Xander's choice of tactics had allowed them to fair much better against the Purifiers than they otherwise might have but in the end none looked worried.

Mr. McCoy would probably still want them to take trip through the infirmary just in case but she hoped the once over wouldn't take too long. No matter how strong she was or what powers she had, she didn't like hospitals and infirmaries were a little too close to those for her to be comfortable in them.

Directing her gaze out the front windshield of the cockpit, she waited to see the sight of the Institute on the horizon but when all she spotted was plumes of smoke rising into the air, a feeling of dread began to form in the pit of her stomach. It only got worse when the darkness drew back to reveal two of the giant robots that government group used to protect the Institute actually trying to destroy the place along with everyone who lived there. Everyone seemed to express disbelief at what they were seeing except for the one behind the wheel as Iceman lived up to his name by keeping his cool. However when she saw him aiming the nose of the jet at the head of one of the Sentinels, she had to wonder if he'd just snapped.

"Everyone brace yourselves!" he yelled as he actually coaxed more speed out of the aircraft.

Not even bothering to let him know what she thought of that recommendation, she grabbed a hold of the armrests of her chair and held on for dear life. With the thunderous sound of metal against metal, the X-Jet hit the giant robot right on the back of the head before bouncing off, though there was no way of knowing what sort of damage the behemoth had suffered but it was probably not enough to take it down.

"Awesome! He's gonna topple!" Rockslide said from one of the window seats of the cockpit.

"He might, but hang on kids. That hit took out our forward thrusters…" Iceman said as he began to use more strength and speed to fly the aircraft, "It's going to be a rough landing…"

"Well what did you think was going to happen ramming that thing!?" she snapped as the tension of the moment needed to be vented somehow.

"Ease up, Buff," came Xander's voice as she suddenly felt a strong wind come forth from the back of the jet. "People on the ground needed help and he gave it. Just like me and Laura are going to do."

Whirling around, she gaped for a moment as she saw both her friend and his maybe-girlfriend standing before the rear entrance ramp of the X-Jet, looking for all the world like they were about to go skydiving without a parachute.

"Xander! You can't be serious!" she exclaimed as she got up to stop him from doing something stupid.

"No time for plans or something smart, Buffy." he said before drawing one of his swords and transforming it into a big fang-shaped broadsword. "Just gotta go with your gut and hope for the best. See ya at ground level!" With that both he and Laura jumped out the back of the jet like there'd be a net or one of those huge inflatable cushions waiting for them.

"IDIOT!" she yelled after them but at the same time she wished she could dive out after them to help.

Even if she wasn't a Slayer anymore, she still had the instincts of one and they demanded she take on whatever threatened those close to her. The only thing that kept her from acting on her instincts was the fact that the rest of the New X-Men would need help getting out of the aircraft once it crash landed. Their injuries might not be as severe as Xander's but that didn't mean they could be trusted to make it to the infirmary on their own without making their condition worse. So as a compromise she promised herself that once she got the others as far as the elevator to the sub-levels of the Institute, she'd head right back out to help where she could.

It didn't take long for Iceman to set them down and while it was far from smooth, she thought it was a good thing that only a few minor things blew up in their face. Moving to help Pixie, whose wings had been injured in the aftermath of her teleport spell, she followed the others as they exited out the side entrance to the plane.

"Bobby. Good move, using the Blackbird." Cyclops said as he approached the arriving group.

"Just desperate…I've got wounded students, Scott." Iceman said as he left the aircraft last, "What's happening here?"

"Yeah! Someone cut their paycheck in half?" she asked half serious and half humorously.

"I wish I knew. They just turned on us." Cyclops replied as he began to move towards the Sentinel that Laura and Xander were carving up like a Thanksgiving Day turkey, "We don't know what happened to the pilots yet."

"Well, at least now it's just like the good old days of everyone against us and giant robots to fight." Iceman commented before turning to look back at her, "Get them inside Slayer. We'll handle this."

Nodding once and knowing where her priorities lay, she took up the lead position as she led the New X-Men into what was left of the mansion through the sole surviving entrance.

The interior of the place was a complete mess and she could tell that either they'd be bunking downstairs for the foreseeable future or be living out of every hotel and motel in the area for the next month. Much to her dismay the elevator wasn't working and that left the more tiresome routes, but at least she'd been clued in to the existence of the stairs that led to the sub-levels because she didn't care for having to help injured people make it down ladders for the next twenty minutes.

In truth it took the lot of them sixteen minutes to get down the stairs and reach the infirmary but at least Hank was here to start taking care of the wounded. Too bad he already had his hands full as her eyes took in Frost, her mini-me daughters, that Xavier guy and the teenager who looked like he was related to an Oscar statue all laid out on beds.

"Just put them on an available bed Ms. Summers." McCoy said as he ran some medical doohicky thing over Frost. "I'll get to them as soon as I can. For now I would most appreciate a brief summary of their condition."

When she got made the second in command of the New X-Men, she didn't know but after deciding that it didn't really matter she began to rattle off injuries one person at a time. She was no doctor but with her lifestyle as the Slayer she'd learned enough to sound like a competent field medic even if she didn't have the education of one. In response to her appraisal of each teenage mutant, he began to verbally direct her to what she'd need to tend to their immediate needs as well as how to use each item. She was a bit unsure of herself at first but a stern reprimand from Hank forced her to shove the uncertainty to the side pay focus on what she was doing.

She could hear the sounds of the battle thumping through the ceiling, occasionally causing the lights to flicker or something unsecured to fall to the ground. She hoped that Xander wasn't doing anything too crazy and that he'd know when to back off if his injuries got any worse. However she had a feeling that so long as Laura was fighting he would be right there by her side watching her back and tearing up the robots that'd so severely damaged the place he'd called home for the last few weeks.

_Give'em hell, Xander!_ She thought even though she was fairly certain he wasn't telepathic.

_**Cooperstown, Alaska**_

_**Early Afternoon, The Next Day, Laura's P.O.V**_

_I don't like this. _She thought as she moved with the rest of the team stealthily getting past the police and state troopers that were keeping watch over what was left of the town.

She'd been approached by Wolverine early in the morning about becoming part of a newly formed X-Force team. When she'd asked what the reason was for the team's formation, he'd told her that it had been discovered that it was Cable who had the mutant baby rather than the Purifiers or Marauders. He went on to say that he'd been ordered by Cyclops to take a team of trained trackers as well as people who wouldn't be afraid to utilize lethal force to track the target down so that they could acquire the baby. It'd only taken her a second to understand the tactical reasons for asking her to join as well as for the mission itself, but in a move that had been mildly surprising she'd asked if Xander would be a part of the team as well. Sesshomaru's senses were as sharp as her own and based on what she'd seen in the Purifier's church, he did not seem like the sort to object to killing someone if it was necessary. Logan, however, had told her no and stated that he wanted Harris to stay behind in case someone took advantage of the current state of the Institute. Considering the recent battle with the Purifiers, it was feasible that they might retaliate and the mansion was hardly in a condition to repel an assault at the moment.

Nevertheless, as the last of the team entered the building that had been their destination, she could not help but wonder if Wolverine feared that her newly developed feelings for the daiyoukai would impair her judgment.

She found herself frowning a bit at the slight to her professionalism but chose not to voice it as Warpath punched a guard unconscious before seizing the officer's walkie-talkie.

"Oh, that was bleeding stealthy, Warpath." Said Wolfsbane with sarcasm all too evident.

"I don't do stealthy." Warpath replied, sounding not a bit sorry.

"You'll do what you're told. There's nothin' in it for us to have to fight our way in." Wolverine said standing nose-to-nose with the larger man.

"True. On the other hand, having a walkie-talkie so we can listen in on the cops and track their movements lessens the chance of having to fight our way out." Warpath explained, adding strategic weight to his actions.

For a moment neither man said anything but when the Indian held out the communications device Logan reluctantly accepted it.

"Hepzibah, you're in charge of the squawk box." Weapon X said, handing off the device to the alien woman. "Rest of you, let's move."

Slowly and carefully the team crept deeper into the hospital until they reached a room right across from the maternity ward.

"Okay. So far, so good," Logan said turning to address the team. "When we were first here, there was too much crap in the air to get any scent. Plus we didn't know what we were lookin' for."

"Now we are knowing. Cable." Spoke Hepzibah in imperfect English.

"Right. Between that and the smoke and chemicals having dissipated, we got a better shot," Wolverine said, acknowledging what was the objective. "We split into pairs. X-23 with me, Caliban is with Hepzibah and Warpath is with Wolfsbane…"

"No offense to Rahne but I'd rather work with Hepzibah." Warpath stated, sounding like he thought he could choose who he was paired with.

Not the case as evident by Weapon X's look of annoyance.

"You go where **I** say. Clear?" Logan asked even though to most it was clearly a rhetorical question.

With that the group began to break up in preparation for the beginning of the search of the area. Due to her enhanced senses, though, she was the only one not involved in the conversation to come to hear what was said.

"Rahne?" Logan asked at a volume barely above a whisper.

"Aye, sir." The mutant werewolf said to acknowledge that she'd heard him.

"Keep an eye on him. When the moment comes, and it's gonna, we can't hesitate. He **can't** hesitate. Warpath's valuable to the mission. But if there's any chance he's gonna falter at the finish line, I've gotta know." Logan said with seriousness in his tone.

With the words said and a look at her, she left with Wolverine and began to smell for any sign of Cable. Weapon X had already given all those with an enhanced sense of smell something of Cable's to get his scent off of and now she used the memory of that scent to find her target. It wasn't easy with so many people having been in and out of the building since the event itself and, when added to the lingering smells from the attack, she had to leave the bare minimum of her attention aware of her surroundings while the rest was on the scent. Letting Logan watch her back as she watched his, they were able to make good progress going through the building but, as the minutes ticked by, the odds of finding Cable's scent dropped.

She was just about to suggest that they search the outside of the building when the sound of gunshots filled the air. Without pause both she and Wolverine ran for the source of the noise. Both of them knew that the only possible reason for it was that the local law enforcement officers had found one of the search teams and opened fire. For a moment she thought it was something Warpath had done but when she saw him and Rahne running towards the noise as well, she realized that it was Hepzibah and Caliban who'd been found. Turning the final corner, she found her prediction confirmed as the alien woman and the former Morlock moving through a mass of unconscious policemen towards them.

"Caliban scream, alerted these men." Hepzibah explained while holding the walkie-talkie.

"Sorry. Caliban has good news and bad news. Good news: whatever kept me from sensing the baby and Cable is gone." Caliban said as he gently laid an unconscious man to the floor.

"Bad news: Neighbors know we here." Hepzibah finished off with a frown at this failure.

"ALL UNITS, CONVERGE ON THE HOSPITAL!" came an unknown voice from the walkie-talkie.

"I grabbed a look at the hospital schematics. There's some old maintenance tunnels accessible through the basement." Warpath said pointing a thumb in the direction of the stairs. "By the time they get in, we'll be in the Blackbird."

"Let's do it." Logan said, causing the group to move as one for the stairwell.

She took the lead this time and made sure to use her senses to the fullest to ensure they encountered no more obstacles than necessary on their way to the basement. A fight with the police would only slow their escape and allow others to arrive to block their path thereby making the situation worse. A part of her wished that she and Wolverine had been assigned this mission alone because of the complications moving in a large group of brought about. All of her training at The Facility was focused on solo-missions, support only bring provided as a last resort. While working with a group in an open battle was beneficial, a mission that required stealth and secrecy generally worked better with as few people as possible.

As they found and began making their way through the tunnels, she turned to their biological Cerebra, Caliban, "Where do you sense Cable?"

"He is far to the southeast. He has made good time on foot." Caliban replied as he ran to keep up with the rest of them.

"No doubt. The guy's a solider through and through," Weapon X said with some respect in his voice. "He knew he'd be pursued sooner or later so he put as much distance between him and this place as possible."

"We'll still be able to catch up with him easily in the Blackbird," Warpath said adding in his input. "So long as Caliban doesn't lose him, we have him."

"Somehow I doubt it'll be that easy." Logan said gruffly as the continued making their escape from the hospital.

She agreed with him on that point. Finding Cable would be easy; defeating him without endangering the baby would not be.

_**The Xavier Institute, The Infirmary, Night, Xander's P.O.V**_

"So how's it looking, Doc?" Xander asked as he took in the sight of the New X-Men as well as those that had been injured in the Sentinel rebellion.

"A few cuts, a broken bone or three and more than one concussion but considering what they've been through, it could have been much worse." McCoy replied as he sat down in a chair by his desk, letting the tension flow out of him. "Your team got off lucky. I wish I could say the same about those who'd fought Sinister and the Sentinels. Nightcrawler was shot, Elixir is unconscious, Mr. Abidemi is still suffering the side-effects of overuse of his powers and then there were those still inside the mansion who got injured by falling debris. None are in danger of dying or suffering permanent injury but it will be some time before they will be back to normal."

"Maybe I should try to heal them with the Tenseiga," he said as he looked down at the sword tied to his waist along with the others. "Then they'd all be better in a flash."

"An idea worth considering, I'll admit, but considering you suffered injuries of your own I would like to wait until you've fully healed." Beast said, raising his head to look at the daiyoukai. "We have no idea how your injuries might influence your ability to use the sword. Besides, I am a strong believer that sometimes it's best to do things the old fashioned way rather than 'in a flash'."

"I guess. I'm going to get something to eat," he said as he began to move towards the door. "You want anything?"

"A steak medium rare with a baked potato would be nice but considering the deplorable state of the kitchen, I shall be satisfied with a donut if you can find one." Hank said with a little levity in his voice.

"Gotcha. One donut coming right up."

As he began to walk towards where the food was located, he almost turned right around when he spotted Emma Frost coming from the opposite direction partly because he still harbored some bitterness towards the woman who had so mistreated Laura, partially because he felt that he'd failed his first test as leader of the New X-Men. Sure, they'd all made it back more or less in one piece but that was only due to a fluke chance involving an unstable spell by Pixie. If the girl had been killed by Metal Finger Lady then odds were good that the entire team, save him and maybe Laura, would be dead. As far as he was concerned a success would have had them fighting their away out of the Purifier's church and making it back to the Institute without a scratch. In the back of his mind he could hear the remnants of his soldier possession berating him for sloppy planning and underestimating the resources of the enemy.

He wasn't sure the echo was completely wrong, either.

"Don't be too harsh with yourself, Alexander," Emma said as they closed to within ten feet of one another. "Despite the fact that you left without permission, your plan was sound. There was no way you could have predicted Lady Deathstrike becoming present during your incursion into the Purifier base."

For a moment he was tempted to snipe at her about poking around people's heads without permission but then realized that she'd probably gathered the full story from Surge or one of the others.

"A good leader plans for every contingency, included unexpected arrivals," he said, sounding not very comforted by her words. "Guess this goes to show that the New X-Men aren't quite ready for the big leagues just yet."

"No, but you have that potential. Whether or not you realize that potential depends entirely on you as well as your ability to motivate your team," Ms. Frost said before continuing down the hallway to wherever her destination turned out to be.

For a moment he stood still and thought about what the woman he'd disliked had said and eventually decided that she had been truthful about her appraisal. Both he and the New X-Men did have potential to become every bit as good as the more senior X-Men because all they really lacked was experience as well as everything that came along with it, like wisdom. Time would allow for the growth of both and therefore he would do his best to give the New X-Men as much as he could while at the same time improving his skills as a leader.

_I just hope that we don't get hit with too many more of these battle royals._ He thought as he saw his destination in sight. _Luck and seat-of-your-pants planning will only get you so far._

A thought occurred to him as his conversation with Emma drifted to the surface for a moment and he wondered if the triplets were up as well. According to what he'd learned after the fighting had come to an end, right before the Sentinels attacked all the telepaths in the Institute were completely knocked out by something. Up until he saw Frost he'd presumed they were all still unconscious and it was possible Celeste and her sisters still were out of it. The former White Queen of the Hellfire Club was better trained and more experienced than teenage triplets so it was possible that she'd done something that had her bouncing back quicker. Still he hoped that they'd wake up soon since their powers and skills would be important in the defense of the Institute should some malevolent party choose to take advantage of its current state.

With that line of thinking started in his mind he began to think of other ways they could shore up their defenses until official repairs could be started. Pretty much everything on the surface was trashed so, aside from improvised barricades, there really wasn't much that could be done. That meant that the serious defenses would have to be in the sub-levels since most of the equipment down here was relatively intact. Sure there were still a few things that were fried because of the birth of the mutant baby but the feeling he got from McCoy was that nothing was irreparably damaged. If they got someone working on it now and kept at it until it was fixed most of the damaged systems could be back online within a day or two.

A light went on inside his head as he recalled what was probably the most powerful weapon they had at their disposal and how useful it'd be if the Cuckoos woke up in time to use it: Cerebra.

Grabbing the box of donuts from the storage room that'd been his destination, he jogged back to the infirmary with ideas a buzzing of there to assign people to get the room and the device it held back in working order. If they could get it working again then not only would they be able to co-ordinate a defense much easier but it would magnify the triplets' own telepathic abilities enough that they might be able to force their way past the synthetic telepathic blockers the Purifiers had. If nothing else it would allow them to know precisely where to direct the bulk of the defense forces should they come under attack. As the door to the infirmary opened up, he had a loose idea of what needed to be done now and what sort of time frame they could get it done in.

"Prodgy! Get on your feet, I need your help with something." he said, deciding that diving right in was better than testing the waters.

"With what?" David asked as he looked up from his seat on the floor.

"Cerebra. I heard that the Cuckoos did something to you telepathically to give you back all the knowledge you got when your powers were still working," he replied with energy returning rapidly to his body. "Do you think you remember enough to repair Cerebra?"

"Maybe. I'd need some help from Mr. McCoy…" Prodigy replied, getting to his feet and looking somewhat uncertain.

"I'm afraid that I will be bound to the infirmary until the more serious patients have been tended to, David," Hank McCoy said, looking away from the screen showing the latest test results, " but if you truly require my input you will need to send a messenger to bring the question to me directly."

"Not a problem. With my speed I can get from the infirmary to Cerebra in the blink of an eye." he said, mentally marking his role as courier of questions and answers.

"Then I believe you should get to it. Scott is likely to call in soon to ask for it to be repaired so it can aid in the search for Cable and the mutant baby." McCoy said, using some of the authority afforded to him as a founding member of the X-Men. "You'll find most of the tools and parts already in the room near the main control interface. Anything else will be in a storage room down the hall, third door on your left."

With that bit of information both he and David left the infirmary and made their way to Cerebra with purpose in their strides and perhaps with some of their confidence restored.

_**Six Hours Later, Cerebra Room, Xavier Institute, Surge's P.O.V**_

_Bishop was able to get to Eagle Plaza in time to catch up with Cable but he was ambushed._ the Cuckoos thought right into her head as they operated Cerebra along with David. _It was the Marauders. They've taken the baby and there's no sign of Cable._

"Well that's not good," Xander said from his position next to Prodigy as he looked at the images being displayed by the holographic projectors built into the walls of the room. "We've gone from someone who wanted the kid for unknown reasons to a group of people who want the kid for seriously bad reasons."

Looking at Sesshomaru standing at the edge of the platform looking at the info being displayed like he knew exactly what he was doing, she knew she had made the right decision stepping down as leader of the New X-Men. Even though her time with the job hadn't been as bad as it could have been, her mind had easily been able to provide her with images of how bad things could have been had Xander not been there. The weight that would have been placed on her shoulders had those terrible possibilities been turned into reality would have been a nightmare for her. Being a leader while playing a game of basketball was nothing compared to being the leader of a team of mutants whose job it was to protect their fellow students from harm. When you were playing a game of hoops, the most you could stand to lose was some money or something from your room but as leader of the New X-Men, she had been quick to realize that if she screwed up lives would be lost… lives of her friends and perhaps everyone else who lived in the mansion.

She had been on the verge of going nuts when Xander had told her that Cyclops and Ms. Frost were considering replacing her as leader. At first her pride had caused her to get angry but, when he revealed that it'd been him who'd been selected to take the job, she began to consider if that'd be such a bad thing. Remembering all of the things he'd done since coming to the Institute, she began to see him as being more and more suited for the role of leader than she could ever be. However it hadn't been until their recent assault on the Purifier HQ that she'd had the last of her doubts about him being leader dispelled. He'd organized them, given them their roles and had used all the power at his disposal to keep them safe. He'd even thrown himself in the path of that Deathstrike woman to protect Pixie and thus protect the only reason they got away in as good a condition as they had. She believed that had they been in a more open area where the possibility of being buried alive wasn't an issue he could have easily wiped out the Purifiers and their allies with his swords.

He had both power and battle smarts. He put his team before everything else including his own life.

There was just no way that she could find fault with him being leader now and every reason to follow him as well as whatever orders he gave out.

"Any chance you can get a lock on the baby?" Xander asked while still taking in the information being displayed on the holo-screens.

_Not really. The baby is flickering in and out. It's almost as if she's jamming the signal._ Thought the Cuckoos as one voice.

"Not possible. I don't care what sort of powers this kid has," Sesshomaru said with certainty as he turned to look at the triplets. "No way is it possible that a baby could control their powers enough to block Cerebra."

_Nevertheless it is the truth._ Thought the sisters with confidence in their theory.

For a moment nothing was said or thought but she knew that something was going on when the information showing up on the holo-screens changed.

_Ms. Frost has ordered that we begin searching for the Marauders and Cable. _Thought the Cuckoos to those present in the room. _You may wish to grab a bite to eat. This will likely take some time._

"Alright. I'll be back in an hour," Xander said as he turned away from the holo-screens and began to walk towards the door.

As he walked away, though, she could tell by the expression on his face that there was something distracting him. She found it kind of nice that she could read his expressions well enough to discern that but she also wondered what was troubling him. Her stomach growled, reminding her that it'd been a while since she'd eaten but the scent of a puzzle that was the distracted Sesshomaru was more appealing at the moment so she followed him. She followed him to the stairwell leading to the surface and then out into the open air but it wasn't until he came to a stop to look about at the remains of the Sentinels that she felt ready to ask the question that was repeating itself in her mind.

"What's bothering you, Xander?"

"I've been trying to make sense of everything that's happened since the mutant baby was first detected. Even though everything seems to fit together pretty good, I can't help but wonder if I'm missing something," he replied as he half turned towards her. "Cable's an X-Man but he's doing his best to keep his distance from us and hasn't called once for help of any kind. Then there are the Sentinels, who attacked at the exact same time all of our telepaths got sent off to dream land and now we have confirmation that the baby is still alive. If Cable meant any harm to the kid, you'd think he would have done it by now."

"Maybe he wants the kid for something. Something that needs the baby alive in order for him to do it?" she suggested trying to help him flesh out the facts a bit more.

"If that's the case then why won't he ask us for help. He's fought alongside Cyclops and the others for years. He should be able to trust them and know that they can help," Sesshomaru stated in a way that implied that the pieces of the puzzle were coming together. "Unless he thought he couldn't trust us or maybe just one of the top people here."

"But why wouldn't he be able to trust us?" she asked, unable to understand how a person could suddenly no longer trust his friends.

For a moment it looked like Xander was about to answer but then a look of understanding appeared on his face and before she could ask any questions he ran off at full speed. Tapping into her own powers to follow, she soon found out that he was heading for the O.N.E barracks where the agents assigned to the mansion often stayed before being rotated out and replaced with a fresh team. Without any hesitation Sesshomaru pulled the door open and entered, completely ignoring the keypad to the side of the door which most normal people would have entered a code into.

When she'd finally caught up to him she found him almost prowling around the cots lined up on either side of the building taking sniffs as though trying to catch a scent. Was he trying to catch Cable's scent? To confirm that it had indeed been the former leader of X-Force was behind the Sentinel attack? She got her answer when a look colder than anything you could find on planet Earth crossed his face. With more intensity he began to examine three specific beds from one end to another and, by the time he was done minutes later, she could tell his mood had only gotten worse if that was at all possible.

"Xander?" she asked tentatively as she was wary of saying another word.

"Cable wasn't the one who turned the Sentinels and those O.N.E pilots on us." He said in a voice just as cold as his expression.

"Then who was it?" she asked almost afraid of what the answer would be.

"It was Bishop. His scent is the only one in here. There's not a trace of Cable's smell anywhere in here." Sesshomaru replied before he began to stride angrily for the door.

"Just because he hasn't been in here doesn't mean he didn't infect them with those nano-Sentinels." She pointed out while mentally rejecting the idea that there'd been a traitor amongst them.

"Maybe but consider the timing. No sooner does Wolverine radio in Cable's involvement then the Sentinel's attack and at the same time all of the telepaths are knocked out cold," Xander said as they exited the O.N.E barracks. "A tad convenient, don't you think? If all he wanted to do was keep the X-Men from following him then destroying Cerebra and all of the X-jets would have been the better move. Destroying the mansion and almost killing everyone just brings that much more heat down on him. Add in that Bishop's been off doing his own thing and it's pretty convenient that he just happen to be in range of Eagle Plaza to head off Cable."

To her horror, the more she thought about it, the more she could remember things about Bishop the last couple of days that had seemed just odd at the time but now supported Xander's theory. If the X-Man from the future really was responsible for the Sentinel rebellion then who knew what else he'd done without them knowing. It was one of the few cons to being a close-knit team like the X-Men, that the idea of a comrade betraying you was almost incomprehensible. As they made their way back to the stairwell, an inhuman roar filled the air and there was no question that it didn't belong. Breaking into a run, they both moved towards the source of the roar and, when they turned the corner, they saw something that both shocked them and enraged them.

There, digging corpses out of the cemetery, was what looked like one of the creatures the Facility had created albeit much larger and much deadlier in appearance. However the shock gave way to anger when she realized that the thing was devouring the corpses of those who had died and Xander had not been able to revive due to how little was left.

"You picked the wrong place to stop for lunch, Fido." Xander snarled as he drew the Tessaiga from its sheath.

"Yeah. Time to pay the bill your mouth just wrote," she said as she brought her electrical powers to bear. "I think it'll come as a shock to you."

_**The Sub-Levels Beneath the Mansion, Same Time, Buffy's P.O.V **_

_Everyone who can still fight get to the surface immediately!_ Came the voices of the Cuckoos in her head. _One of the mutant hunting predators created by The Facility is here and has been engaged by Xander and Surge! They need __**help!**_

The urgency in the tone of the triplets was enough to get her running for the surface but when she heard that Xander was once more in trouble, she willed herself to move faster. In response an energy field seemed to cover her body and the pull that gravity had on her lessened until there was just enough left to maintain traction with the floor. She met up with Cessily and Sooraya at the stairwell and decided it was time to ask the big question.

"What exactly are we dealing with?" she asked needing something to work with.

"When The Facility captured me, they managed to take some of my skin and graft it onto a monster they created," Cessily replied with a haunted tone of voice. "It looks like a really big dog and it's driven by the biological need to feet off of mutants. The only problem is that it was also designed to never feel full, so no matter how many victims it eats it'll never lose the hunger for more."

"Great!" she growled as she was sickened by the inhumanity of some people.

Still, she was sure that between the lot of them they could handle this creature. After all it sounded a lot like a demon and she had quite of experience putting demons down from her time as the Slayer. As they exited onto the surface, they didn't have to look for very long to find the monster with all the noise it was making but when she saw it her confidence took a hit. It was easily the size of one of those stretch Humvees and, on the surface at least, it looked to be made completely out of metal. Also while there were certainly some canine characteristics it didn't look like any dog or even hellhound she'd ever seen before.

And **that** was a bad thing.

Her appraisal of the creature ended there as the wind shifted and the monster caught her scent, along with the rest of the new arrivals. Looking very much like a jungle cat that had spotted some particularly juicy prey, it lunged at them with claws extended to tear the flesh from their bones. She, Dust and Mercury were able to dodge out of the way in time but Santo got torn clean in half by the thing. It was a good thing he was pretty much a ghost that could make a body out of rocks anytime he wanted, otherwise she'd have written him off as dead. At the moment, though, she did her best to put some distance between herself and the creature while the others did the same. They spread out so as to make sure that the monster wouldn't be able to get more than one of them at a time when it struck.

Looking around briefly, she tried to find Xander and Surge to see if they were alright but aside from some burning grass as well as unnatural foot-size gouges in the ground she saw nothing. Before her mind could even think it, she refused to believe that they were dead and clung to the belief that they were doing something else to help combat these creatures. That meant she had to buy them some time to do what they needed to do.

Deciding that fighting in close with the thing was not a good idea, she tapped into her powers to adopt the fire lady form she'd used in Limbo and immediately began throwing streams of fire at the monster. However, when the beast leapt through the flames looking to devour her, it proved that high temperatures wouldn't do much more than partially blind it. Before it got to her, she shifted into her smoke form and flowed around it to reform twenty feet behind it and mentally patted herself on the back in satisfaction at how she'd managed to shift forms so skillfully. However this bit of self-congratulation proved to be a mistake since the monster managed to land, turn around and lunge at her once more with moves even she could envy. Shifting into the energy form that allowed her to fly, she took to the air, hoping that even if the thing was stronger and faster than it had a right to be it still couldn't follow her up into the sky. This proved to be the case when it looked up at her but did nothing to follow.

Instead it sniffed the air for a moment before heading for one of the few intact wings of the mansion and crashed through the window to get at what was inside. Hearing a girl screaming, she flew towards the window with the intent of yanking it back outside in time to save whoever it was stalking but wound up being beaten to the punch by someone else. In a flash of blue light and electricity the beast was flung back outside with the young woman responsible following it in order to keep up the bombardment.

It was Surge.

Switching to pure energy blasts rather than the constructs, she added her strength to the assault while simultaneously coming down to hover beside the girl with the neon blue hair.

"Where's Xander?"

"I don't know. He tried to hit it with an energy blast from one of his swords but before it hit, some sort of weird symbols appeared on that things skin bouncing the attack right back," Surge replied as the strain of keeping her blasts at such a potent level began to show. "He got knocked into the forest and I haven't seen him since. Didn't think I'd be able to hold this thing off by myself so I headed inside to try and evacuate the others to the sub-levels. We didn't get very far."

"Obviously," she sniped, watching the creature gradually begin work its way towards them despite the energy being thrown at it. "Dammit! What does it take to make this thing **DEAD**!?"

"A lot more than we have it looks like." Nori replied even knowing that the question was rhetorical.

"Ask and you shall receive!" came a familiar voice from the side before a form tackled the creature through a wall and into the mansion interior.

Wasting no time making it to the improvised entrance, she looked in to see Xander wrestling with the thing like it was some sort of crocodile while slashing at it with glowing claw-like fingernails every so often. It was after the fourth slash by her friend that she saw what Nori had described earlier as glowing symbols similar to what she'd seen in Giles' books began to appear on the creature. Then, all at once, the light from the markings surged knocking the dye you kai away like he'd been at ground zero of an explosion, causing him to leave a sizeable impression in an interior wall. This time, though, it looked as though her only guy friend had been expecting it since his recovery was quicker but he looked seriously pissed in the 'you-need-to-look-into-his-eyes-to-see-it' sort of way. Without the eyes there was nothing but a completely emotionless look on his face letting nothing that could tell a person what was on his mind show itself.

"We are getting **very** annoyed," Xander said with such a cold voice that she couldn't help but shudder.

"Yeah, I can see that." She said unable to keep from adding in something.

For a moment it looked as though the creature was going to attack them again but then something caught its attention, something that couldn't be seen. Then without warning it began to dig at a determined pace and, before anyone could stop the monster, it was gone.

"Um…where's that thing going?" Surge asked as Mercury and Dust came up behind her, "Shouldn't it be… you know…trying to eat us?"

"No. It's a predator." Xander said as he moved to follow the creature, "It'll target the weak and injured first."

Immediately she flashed to those still in the infirmary and used her energy form to propel her down the hole the monster had created. No **WAY** was she going to let that thing chow down on the people she'd helped McCoy patch back together so few hours ago. Yet even at her top speed she was no match for Xander who ran past her as though she was frozen in time while heading for the infirmary.

By the time she got there, the big guy with the silver tattoos already had the thing in a headlock and all the injured were gathered in the furthest corner of the room. Hearing footsteps coming from the opposite end of the hallway, she saw lizard boy, Pixie, Prodigy and Rockslide running to join them.

"Anole, Rockslide and Dust will act as distractions to keep it away from the wounded while the rest of us evacuate as many people as we can." Xander declared as he prepared to attack. "Once it's just us and the monster we'll hit it with everything we've got."

"HEY! X-23 killed one of those things, Santo told us!" Pixie said with some excitement as though she'd suddenly had an idea, "I can take it to her! SIHAL NOVARUM CHINOTH!"

"Pixie do—" was as far as she got before a bright pink light filled her vision as the world twisted in on itself from her point of view.

_I hope the girl gets it right this time!_ Was the last thought she had in the infirmary.

_**Muir Island, One Second Later, Laura's P.O.V**_

The fight was at a proverbial stalemate at the moment with no true end in sight.

While the various X-teams fought with great skill and power, both sides were so familiar with the other side's moves that it was difficult to do more than maintain the status quo. Then, in a flash of pink light, it all changed as not only the New X-men arrived but also Predator X and the creature created by the Facility wasted no time in devouring the Marauder Vertigo in two bites.

While the additional forces were welcome, the chaos factor that the monster created would disrupt any efforts at coordinating a coherent offense against their foes. The only benefit was the fact that Sinister's forces would likewise be unable to mount anything successful, but considering that most of the members were loners by nature, the level of impairment wouldn't be as great. However as she watched her teammates from the New X-Men move away to the periphery of the fight, she wondered what was going on.

It was only when she saw Ms. Frost using her powers that she realized that the headmistress of the Institute was telepathically instructing them to stay out of the thick of things. While there was a part of her that understood that the New X-Men were not used to such fierce close quarters fighting among super powered individuals, another part knew that they needed their involvement to win. To continue to fight the Marauders while trying to evade Predator X's attacks meant fighting a battle on two fronts and that was never a good idea. Nevertheless, she was too caught up in fighting members of the Marauders to lodge a formal protest.

For five point three minutes she fought to defeat her foe and then, just when it looked as though she might feel the bite of several bullets to her torso, a thread made up of golden light sliced through Scalphunter's rifle, causing it to explode in the Marauder's face as the explosive rounds detonated. She watched as Xander landed in front of her and then the two of them went back to back to protect one another as well as fight by each other's side.

It felt good.

It felt… right.

"I thought you had been ordered by Ms. Frost to stay out of the main fighting." she said as one of Exodus' Acolytes began to attack her.

"She changed her mind. Not that I was waiting for her to do that," Xander said as he deflected a blast from Sunfire using the Tessaiga. "I would have come sooner but these guys are no pushovers."

She almost… smiled at how Alexander had been willing to defy orders to come to her aid but she needed to keep her mind on the battle at hand. With so many hostiles attacking it would only take a moment of inattention to remove her from the battle.

Still, with the two of them working together, few enemies posed a problem for long and from what she could tell, the other New X-Men were likewise acquitting themselves well against their opponents. Pixie managed to defeat Malice with her soul dagger and Dust, she could see, had defeated Exodus himself from the inside, using her sand-like form to tear up his lungs. Indeed, with the introduction of unfamiliar opponents, teenagers no less, the Marauders and their Acolyte allies were being defeated with every minute that passed by.

Unfortunately the same could not be said about Predator X, who seemed to actually be evolving bit by bit to take whatever they had to throw at it and send something nasty back their way. From what she could see as the battle with the humanoid enemies lessened in intensity, it would take a devastating attack capable of doing massive damage to the beast to take it down for good.

"Xander? Can one of your swords defeat Predator X?" she asked as she received a momentary respite from fighting.

"No. I don't know how but that thing's got some sort of warding runes on it that protects it from youki attacks." Sesshomaru replied as he took a breather, "Anything I fire at it gets sent back to me at least two times stronger."

"It evolved enough to do that?" she asked, somewhat surprised at this development.

"Not a chance. I think someone made some changes to it since it left The Facility," Alexander replied, sounding there were a few suspicions rolling around in his head. "Changes that put it on a more level playing field with the likes of me."

She did not like how that sounded. It implied either that The Facility had branched out into the paranormal or some other party had chosen to take advantage of the opportunity the beast represented in order to kill Xander. She made a mental note to determine who it could be so that she could have a word with them in person once some free time came up.

It was as she was about to go to the aid of the remaining New X-Men that she noticed Logan climbing a pillar of concrete with Predator X looking up at him with its ravenous mouth open.

"Logan! What's he doing?" she asked as she saw Wolverine stand and look down at the monster.

Before anyone could answer insanity seemed to invade her world as, without warning, Weapon X leapt from his perch and seemed to dive right into the waiting mouth of Predator X.

"LOGANNNN!" she cried as she charged at the monster with claws extended.

With members of the X-Men, X-Force and New X-Men fighting alongside her they tore into the beast determined to rescue their comrade or avenge him.

"NUUURH! You won't **take** him! NOT YOU!" she yelled as she let her instincts guide where her claws would strike, "NOT **YOU!**"

It was only a little while later that all began to notice jerking movements from the beast that did not correspond to any of their blows. It bellowed in pain and three adamantium claws burst from its side before cutting through Predator X, effectively eviscerating it. Then, climbing out of the blood and internal organs, came Wolverine, looking every bit like the unstoppable killing machine the people who'd originally given him his claws had intended him to be.

"But like they say: beauty's only skin deep." Logan said while taking deep breaths to replenish what he'd lost killing the creature.

She wasn't sure what the man meant but she presumed it was the punch line of some sort of joke he must have begun saying before diving into the monster's mouth.

"Well what're you all gawking at?" Wolverine asked in his usual gruff manner, "There's still fighting that needs to be done and asses that need kicking."

With that the leader of the newly formed X-Force dove back into the fight that had more or less been reduced to dealing with the small fry of both the Marauders and the Acolytes. When the rest of them joined it, the fight was swift to end as those remaining enemies present seemed to catch on that they were outnumbered and outmatched. Their flight was far from organized but, once they managed to disappear from sight, the rest of the allied forces seemed to consider that good enough and broke off pursuit.

One by one they made their way to where Professor Xavier, Scott Summers, Cable and the source of the entire operation were and stopped to look at what might very well be the future of mutantkind. She was not the religious sort but she could understand the tactical value of the child and how it could possibly help restart the mutant race from the stagnant state the Scarlet Witch had left it in. If new mutants did start appearing, she knew that not all of them would subscribe to the X-Men's way of thinking but if even five percent of them did, it would be a good thing.

"Nathan." Cyclops said calling Cable by his civilian name. "Take her."

With that the leader of the X-Men held out the baby for the old soldier to take.

"Wh-what?" Cable asked with surprise as he looked at his father.

"Take her out of here. Let her be herself. Choose for herself," Mr. Summers explained walking towards the man that was only now getting to his feet, "and not be a key, or a strategic resource, or a playing piece in someone else's game. Give her the freedom I was never able to give you."

The others voiced their hesitation but Cyclops quieted them two sharp sentences.

"Nathan, do you need any help getting back to the mainland?" Scott asked looking at his son for what could be the last time.

"No. I've got the temporal circuitry I took from Forge. Scott, I—" Cable said with hesitation showing on his face.

"Save it for a better time. This isn't goodbye." Cyclops said putting a comforting hand on his son's shoulder.

"No. It isn't. I'll drop by as soon as we're settled," Cable said as he pressed a button on a device tied to his belt, "Give you a progress report. Thanks for every-"

That was all the man could get out before he was fully into the time stream with the mutant baby.

"NO!" came an irrational cry as the air filled with gunfire.

She instantly recognized it as Bishop's voice but the traitor was too late. Cable and the baby were gone and instead of hitting them, it hit someone else entirely.

Professor Charles Xavier.

Cyclops reacted instantly using his optic blast to send Bishop through the wall of the building and outside into the brightening day. Sadly the damage was done because while she and others with a similar level of healing ability might have been able to survive a head shot, Charles Xavier did not have that ability. Even as Beast used his skills as a doctor to do what he could, it was not long before they accepted that their once and former leader was dead. However, unlike, how this would have gone in some other reality, they now had a means of saving him.

Almost as one, everyone present turned to Xander, who had already drawn the Tenseiga and was preparing to use it to revive the Professor and heal his injury. However, before the slash could be executed, something happened and Xavier was gone. She looked about immediately trying to see where he could have gone and who had taken him but while she was able to track his scent to a nearby room it ended there suggesting teleportation was used.

"He's gone." She stated to inform the rest that she could not track him any further.

"Then that's it," Cyclops said, sounding like he was willing to leave the disappearance of Xavier's not even cool body where it was and not attempt to retrieve it from whoever had taken it.

"That's it? You're just going to leave the body of the man who helped you become who you are today to some unknown person?" Xander asked, sounding shocked as well as a little angry. "I can bring him back. You understand that don't you? But in order to do that I need the body in one piece."

"We don't know who took him and, like you said, you need an intact body in order for your sword to work. Who knows if we'll find the body before it's cremated or cut up?" Cyclops put forth with a bit more steel in his voice, "There could even be a time limit on how long someone can be dead before your sword won't work."

"We've taken on worse odds before, Cyke," Wolverine said, sounding like he was willing to fight Summers on this point as well. "Considering that it looks like Exodus and his people have conveniently slipped away, why don't we start with them and go from there?"

For a moment all were silent but with a breath of defeat Cyclops nodded and in that moment may have prevented a mutiny in the process. While she knew from her time at the mansion that past secrets had caused a rift to form between Xavier and many of the X-Men, the sense of family and fellowship remained strong for most of them. Therefore, while personally they would still have their feelings of anger and betrayal when it came to Xavier, the ideals that the X-Men stood for as well as the bonds forged by long association made it so retrieving Charles Xavier had to be done.

Thus without further delay the various members of the X-Teams split into groups and began to fan out in all directions looking for any sign of what they sought. While it was true that a teleporter could be on the other side of the planet at the moment there was still enough of a chance that he or she was still on Muir Island to warrant searching it.

And search it they did for five hours straight.

_**California, Los Angeles, One Day Later**_

"So he's still alive?" asked the charming man in his mid-fifties from the head of the table.

"Yes, sir. It appears that while the runes did negate the majority of Sesshomaru's youki based abilities and its exterior was quite resistant to attack, the insides were not so resilient," Replied a balding man sitting three seats down on the right side of the table.

"This is not good. The Senior Partners are quite intent on making sure that the newly returned youkai Lord does not remain among the living for very long." Stated the charming man with importance in his voice. "They will not be pleased with this failure."

"M-maybe it's not really Lord Sesshomaru." Mr. Balding said with a slight hitch as he realized where matters were heading. "After all, we have an entire department devoted to making convincing forgeries. Maybe someone else does as well."

"That was my first thought when I'd heard about his return," Mr. Charming said, sounding like he might be willing to be swayed. "However our people have recorded and analyzed each use of the three swords he possesses and they matched what we have on record perfectly. It's him."

Mr. Balding seemed to be mentally scrambling for any positive piece of information that might keep his head off the chopping block. However he could find nothing big enough to counter the fact that his primary assignment had failed.

"Still, it's good to know that the new runes work as advertised. We can begin having them installed in all of our major offices and attached to our more important personnel." Mr. Charming declared with a positive smile as he got up from his chair. "Having a working defense against Sesshomaru is an important first step. We'll kill him soon enough. We've done it before."

As Mr. Charming continued to walk down behind the row of men and women in impeccable business suits, Mr. Balding's anxiety increased and reached its peak when his superior was standing right next to him.

"Still, this must have been difficulty for you, especially with that half-breed princess keeping an eye out for her reincarnated old man." Mr. Charming said giving a comforting pat on the shoulder to Mr. Balding, "You deserve a vacation, Lee. A **long** vacation."

With that Mr. Charming, otherwise known as Holland Manners, walked away from Mr. Balding, also known as Lee Mercer, and before the latter could beg the former to spare his life, a janitor put two bullets in the lawyer's head.

Life at Wolfram & Hart was a dog eat hellhound lifestyle, after all, and you didn't last long unless you took steps to become as big and bad as those around you.

A pity Lee forgot that.

_**A Warehouse, Pennsylvania, Night**_

She didn't know how long she'd hung from the ceiling with the bag over her head and her arms secured over her head but she knew that she was hungry. In some pain, too. The pain was hard to forget most of the time but occasionally she did.

Though that was to be expected when a group of well-trained men attacked you and beat you into unconsciousness but at least she hadn't gone down without a fight. She might not have been a warrior by profession but the will to never give up was strong in her family and therefore strong in her despite the steps she took to blend in. However it had not been enough and when she'd awoken she'd found herself in her present state, bound and blind. She'd tried calling out a few times in order to get an idea of who had abducted her and why but no one answered her either with word or action. Thus she was left with no other choice but to wait.

Just as her mind was about to follow another train of thought she heard the sound of a door opening and then footsteps that sounded like they were coming towards her.

"Whose there?" she asked, hoping that this new sensory input meant her captors were in a talkative mood.

There was no answer that she could hear but when the footsteps stopped only a foot or two in front of her she got a more direct reply in the form of the hood being yanked off of her head. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the light that filled the room but eventually it did and she could see clearly who it'd been who had removed the hood.

Spider-Woman.

Clad in the same red, black and yellow costume that she wore in the news broadcasts of the Avengers, the twenty-something year old woman looked at her. There seemed to be something… angry in the woman although there was nothing visible to be seen and that only made it all the harder to understand why a hero would be mad at her.

"What? Nothing to say for yourself?" asked Spider-Woman with a trace of anger in her voice. "I must say I applaud the lengths you went to in order to conceal yourself. I had to exhaust almost every resource I had in order to find you. Still it was worth it just to see you again."

"See me again? I don't know what you mean." she said truthfully, although a feeling of unease began to rise within her, "I've never met you before in my life."

"So you really don't recognize me?" Spider-Woman asked rhetorically and mockingly, "Then perhaps this will refresh your memory."

With that the superhero reached up and pulled down the mask that covered her face exposing her bright green eyes.

"**Perhaps you will recognize me now.**" Spoke the woman in a language that had not been heard by her captive in over eighteen years.

"No…" she gasped as the eyes and the language revealed who she was truly facing.

"Yes. It's been so long since we've seen each other," spoke the woman wearing the form of Spider-Woman. "I'm touched that you still remember me, J'arise. I still remember the time we spent together when we were younger with fondness. It's such a pity that you left under such… damaging circumstances."

"You left me no choice." She said, refusing to be drawn into talking about old times.

"Perhaps. Nevertheless, the chase is over my dear, dear, J'arise," said the fake Spider-Woman with her voice becoming as sharp as the most well-crafted blade. "Now I will give you one chance and one chance only to tell me what I wish to know: where is the child?"

"I will never tell you! I will not let you use her for your plans!" she yelled in defiance knowing that it would bring about her end.

"Oh that's where you're wrong. We've managed to refine quite a few things since you left us, including our ability to take on the powers of other super powered beings," said Ms. Fake with a feral smile on her face. "Trust me when I say that you will tell me everything that I wish to know, J'arise, or perhaps you'd rather I call you **Joyce Summers**."

_**To Be Continued…**_


End file.
